Tuesday 24 June 2014

Islamic banking a winner for EXIM Bank Malaysia

Export-Import Bank of Malaysia (EXIM Bank) has revealed that its Islamic business contributed strongly to its year of record performance, with a net profit of RM144.7 million for the year ended 31 December 2013, a 16.9% improvement from RM123.8 million previously. 

Islamic banking proved a winner for the Bank in FY2013 as the share of Islamic banking assets at RM1.5 billion recorded a 189% increase from the previous year's RM524 million.

The bank also successfully established a US$1 billion multicurrency sukuk issuance programme in support of the anticipated growth of Islamic businesses. The inaugural sukuk marks the world’s first export-import bank to undertake such exercise.

“We are pleased that our inaugural USD sukuk issuance in Malaysia, which also represents the world's first EXIM Bank to issue USD sukuk, received an overwhelming response from investors globally. The sukuk was oversubscribed by approximately 10 times attracting more than US$3 billion orders and was fully distributed to over 185 Islamic and conventional investors,” said Dato’ Adissadikin Ali, President/Chief Executive Officer of EXIM Bank Malaysia. 

“The Sukuk also represents EXIM’s commitment to support the government’s ongoing initiatives and efforts to position Malaysia as an international Islamic finance marketplace.” 

The Bank continued to grow its Islamic businesses which include banking facilities and credit insurance. In driving this growth, the Bank has been successful at mapping all its conventional banking facilities to shari'ah-compliant products. These developments led to an increased share of total Islamic financing of up to 25.9%, from 14.6% recorded in 2012.