CIMB Islamic to boost group loans by contributing 19%

The lender believes global economic uncertainties would have lesser impact on Malaysia’s economy as it was largely driven by local demand.

CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd expects to contribute between 15% and 19% to the group’s total loans this year, which currently stood at 13.8%.

“Both our conventional and Islamic banks (loan contributions) are growing. We can expect the share of (loan) book in our Islamic banking to grow bigger but not so fast. It should probably surpass mid-teens,” CIMB Islamic Bank chief executive officer Badlisyah Abdul Ghani said.

He said that there was no target set for the share of book within CIMB Group as it was largely dependent on customer demand. The bank would continue to market and sell Islamic products.

On the global economic uncertainties, Badlisyah said the impact would be limited on Malaysia’s economy which was largely driven by local demand.

As for the Islamic commercial banking for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector, he said the loan growth rate was now in the range of 20% and that the bank would maintain the rate for the year.

Badlisyah added that the bank wanted to enhance its SME support and had entered the market aggressively.

View the full story in the Malaysian Star.