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Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) has confirmed its support of deputy CEO Datuk Badlisyah Abdul Ghani to lead Bank Islam Malaysia following the retirement of the bank’s group managing director, Datuk Seri Zukri Samat. TH has a 52.5% stake in BIMB Holdings which wholly owns Bank Islam. Bank Islam’s board had already put forward its choice, Khairul Kamarudin, to Bank Negara and the decision now lies with the central bank. TH CEO Datuk Seri Johan Abdullah confirmed recommending Badlisyah to be appointed to lead Bank Islam. He added that the choice of leadership and succession is subject to nomination of the board of directors and approval by Bank Negara Malaysia. He said TH was never at odds with the board of directors.

According to outgoing Bank Islam director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat, there are too many Islamic banks in Malaysia, which means that this segment of the local financial sector is ripe for mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Zukri is also advocating direct listings of such banks. There are 16 Islamic banks in Malaysia of which two are full-fledged banks, eight are subsidiaries of conventional banks and the remaining, foreign banks. Zukri hopes to see the creation of mega Islamic banks that can potentially become regional champions under the Asean banking integration framework. It is not yet known who will replace Zukri, but one name has already been submitted to Bank Negara for approval. Bank Islam’s parent company BIMB is at the same time contemplating a group-wide restructuring to fulfil regulatory compliance requirements.

Bank Islam's managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said he would not extend his contract when his tenure ends in June this year. When asked on his successor, Zukri said there was still plenty of time to search for a successor since it was only January. On Bank Islam Visa Infinite MPN credit card-i, he said it was introduced in response to Bank Negara’s call for a cashless society. He said the collaboration with MPN was the bank’s continuous cooperation with the academic institutions starting with the introduction of the UniDebit card in 2012. Meanwhile, MPN chairman Professor Tan Sri Zakri Abu Hamid welcomed the strategic cooperation to strengthen the corporate image of both parties.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd said the proposed move to allow developers to provide loans to house buyers will not have a severe impact on the bank, as it will continue to focus on its target market.
“For us, we don’t see any reduction in (our) approval rate, mainly because our target market remained stable,” its deputy CEO Khairul Kamarudin told reporters after launching the bank’s Visa Infinite Business Credit Card-i (business card-i) here yesterday. “Our target market has always been the middle income (segment) and we will continue focusing on our target market and we are seeing the same approval rate (going forward)”. Khairul said the bank’s approval rate last year was 70%, and slightly better this year at 71%, to date. He also said the bank has not experienced high loan rejections despite the current uncertain economic conditions. “People (borrower) who are eligible last year are also eligible this year. For the ones who have their applications get rejected are maybe for the ‘high ticket’ properties,” he added, noting that the bank is more focused on providing loans for affordable housing.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd (BIMB) expects slower growth in 2016 compared to last year amid the current economic challenges, according to managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat. He said he hoped the bank will maintain double-digit growth in terms of financing performance as achieved last year. Asked on plans to open more Bank Islam branches this year, Zukri said the bank was still assessing the current economic situation. He said the bank was eyeing 600,000 payWave debit cards issued in 2016, up from 200,000 cards issued by end-December 2015. Zukri said the bank had invested millions of ringgit in the “E-donation” Terminal Using Visa PayWave programme, and aims to provide these terminals to 10 mosques nationwide, including in Sabah and Sarawak.

Shariah- based funding is available now to support viable green technology projects, says Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd Managing Director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat. He said the bank would use every opportunity to promote Shariah-based financial products and services for project financing transactions, in line with the government's aim of establishing Malaysia as a leader in Islamic finance. Zukri said Bank Islam had completed the project financing transaction exercise for Kerian Energy via the syndicated Islamic financing facilities of RM121.44 million under the Shariah principle of Tawarruq. He also said the bank was looking towards re-balancing its consumer banking and corporate banking portfolio at a ratio of 70:30 by year-end.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd expects a moderate and slower performance in 2015 with assets to grow at 10% and financing at 15% due to the current economic challenges. The consumer market sector has been noticeably slowed down, especially with the guidelines of the introduction of responsible financing by Bank Negara (Malaysia), Managing Director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said. Bank Islam, which currently has 142 branches nationwide, will open eight more branches, including in the rural areas by year-end, he added after presenting RM12.74 million in business tithe to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom in Kuala Lumpur. At the same event, Bank Islam introduced 'Mudah Zakat', a multi-channel tithe payment system to improve tithe management efficiency.

Islamic banking industry is hoping that the government will provide incentives to facilitate the development of the investment account (IA) in 2015. Bank Islam Bhd Managing Director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said the industry would benefit from such incentives. Zukri also suggested that the government educate the people on Islamic finance as well as prosper the IFSA 2013.

Bank Islam Malaysia expects a 20 per cent growth in its financing activities this year, says Managing Director, Datuk Seri Zukri Samat. He said this would be slightly lower compared with the 25 per cent growth registered last year. Zukri added that this was probably impacted by some of Bank Negara Malaysia's measures to slow down the debt growth in the household sector. On its aim to become Malaysia's first mega Islamic bank, he said the bank was open to any merger and acquisition proposal but is not in talks with any party at this point in time. Towards this end, he said the bank was looking for synergies to complement the areas that the Islamic bank is lacking, for instance, corporate banking.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd has reiterated its interest in the Indonesian Islamic banking market despite previous attempts at penetrating the world’s largest Muslim country seeing a dead-end. Managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said Indonesia possessed tremendous prospects as the country, with a population of 240 million, is still underserved in the Islamic banking sector. Islamic banking penetration in Indonesia is about 3% to4%, whereby Malaysia is between 23% and 24%. There is a huge Muslim population in Indonesia but Islamic banking penetration is very low, certainly there is a lot of business opportunity there, he said.

Bank Islam Malaysia (Bank Islam) plans to open 141 branches nationwide by year-end. Managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said the new branches will be opened at Jalan Chan Sow Lin in Kuala Lumpur; Bandar Enstek in Negeri Sembilan, Bukit Ibai in Trengganu, Sri Damansara, Puchong and in Johor. Nine more branches are planned for 2015. In addition to the bank's branch expansion, Zukri said Bank Islam has also enhanced its distribution channels by establishing five urban business centres, improve on internet banking and mobile banking services as well as provide more than 1,200 self-service terminals nationwide. Due to the new set of terms and conditions introduced by Bank Negara on loans, the bank suffered a 10 per cent decline in assets and loan performance.

Bank Islam Malaysia is confident of achieving more than 15% growth in profit before tax and zakat this year compared with RM600.3 million last year. Managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said consumer banking would continue to be the main contributor to achieve the target. 70% of the financing portfolio is to be contributed by consumer banking and the balance of 30% from corporate and commercial banking. For the first quarter of this year, the bank raked in profit before tax and zakat of RM151.5mil. However, Zukri said the economic growth which is somewhat slow currently and the new guidelines on responsible lending might affect the bank's financing growth.

Talks between BIMB Holdings and the Dubai Financial Group (DFG) over the latter's 30.5% stake in Bank Islam Malaysia have stalled. This is because a long-awaited plan by BIMB to transfer its listing status to Bank Islam is nearing fruition, a prospect DFG finds more attractive than hiving off its interest to pare down debts. The bigger picture, however, is that pilgrim fund Lembaga Tabung Haji, the parent to both BIMB and Bank Islam, is revisiting the idea of a mega Islamic bank involving a merger between BIMB and Bank Muamalat Malaysia. Bank Islam managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said the lender might carry out an initial public offering (IPO) within a year or two.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd is noticing opportunities for expansion in Indonesia and Bangladesh, which have sizeable Muslim populations and adequate Islamic banking regulatory policy and supporting infrastructure in place to speed up Shariah-based financing and banking operations.
Managing Director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat stated that although the two countries have been recognized as "very interesting countries" that fit into the bank's expansion plan, such plans would have to take into consideration the current global economic situation and its effect in this region.

After completing its share-subscription exercise that gives the group a 20% stake in bank, it seems that Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd is now the single largest shareholder in Sri Lanka.
Based on the statement of managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat the total cost investment for the 20% stake in Amana Bank is RM22.6mil.