Malaysia's Public Bank seeks approval for $1.5 bln Basel III sukuk-IFR

The sharia compliant arm of Malaysia-based Public Bank has submitted a proposal to the central bank for a 5 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion) Basel-III compliant Islamic bond program. Public Islamic Bank, a wholly-owned unit of Public Bank, may emerge as the third issuer of Basel III compliant sukuk. AmIslamic, which established a Basel III compliant sukuk program for 3 billion ringgit on Feb 13, sold 200 million ringgit on Wednesday. RHB Capital received approval from the securities commission for a similar 1 billion ringgit program earlier this month. Besides, the country's conventional banks have begun issuing Basel III bonds; Public Bank issued medium-term notes worth 1 billion Malaysian ringgit last September.