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The Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia (Aibim) has ensured that its member banks will continue to provide access for Islamic finance banking products. Aibim’s president Datuk Adissadikin Ali assured that customers who are eligible will not be deprived from access to financing. He added that customers should also recognise the need to make sound decisions based on their own affordability and in line with their financial conditions. Last year, Islamic banks approved a total of RM37.7 billion, representing 36.7% from the total financing for the purchase of residential properties. They also approved RM12.4 billion of personal financing and supported RM1 billion funding for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Malaysian Islamic banks are boosting their trade financing market share with various measures. Maybank Islamic CEO Mohamed Rafique Merican said the bank intended to grow its trade facilities in line with growing demand for Islamic finance in Malaysia. Mohamed Rafique was speaking to reporters after a forum on "Islamic Trade Finance: Revitalising Trade and Unlocking New Potential". He said a lot more could be done to boost Islamic trade facilities, which stood at 1.5% out of US$50 billion. RHB Islamic Bank CEO Datuk Adissadikin Ali said Islamic banks would need to collaborate with the financial technology players to provide e-commerce trade financing. He added that RHB Islamic Bank was developing an e-commerce trade financing platform to enable companies to boost their working capital and the platform was likely to be implemented next year.

Alkhair International Islamic Bank (AKIIB) has appointed Yeow Tiang Hui as its chief executive officer effective Aug 1.
AKIIB said in a statement that he succeeded Datuk Adissadikin Ali, who left the bank last year to head RHB Islamic Bank. Yeow has worked at several multinational banks, including managing the multinational portfolio at Deutsche Bank and being vice-president of Citibank/Citicorp’s venture capital outfit and its head of commercial banking. From 2007 to 2016 he served as head of corporate banking at Kuwait Finance House in Malaysia.

RHB Islamic Bank is expecting to disburse at least RM50 million this year to facilitate the development of entrepreneurs. The fund is part of the Teras Fund programme provided via the Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju). According to RHB Islamic Bank's CEO Datuk Adissadikin Ali, the collaboration with Teraju had so far disbursed RM200 million as of 2016 from the total fund raised of RM400 million. He said the original fund for the programme was RM80 million, but RHB Islamic managed to raise the fund by leveraging on resources to RM400 million.

RHB Bank is eyeing the top three spot in the Islamic banking space for its syariah complaint unit. RHB Islamic Bank CEO Datuk Adissadikin Ali said growth in the recent past years had been strong and that the bank could continue riding on this growth. He said the contribution of Islamic banking assets to the group’s total assets is 25% and that the aim was to grow this figure to 40% by the year 2020. The group syariah business is identified as one of RHB’s key growth areas under its Ignite 2017 transformation programme. The bank intends to achieve by 2017 a return on equity of more than 14%, double contributions from Singapore to 10%, have 30% in overseas contribution, scale growth in small and medium enterprises, and have Islamic banking accounting for 30% of its assets.

Alkhair Islamic Bank Bhd (AKIIB) has appointed Datuk Adissadikin Ali as its new chief executive office, succeeding Ikbal Daredia effective June 1, 2015. The bank said on Friday that Adissadikin would be responsible for the development of AKIIB, as it is the first Islamic bank in the country to conduce a full range of non-Malaysian ringgit banking activities. He will also oversee all aspects of AKIIB business in Malaysia and the surrounding regions. Meanwhile, it noted that Adissadikin has 15 years experience in the financial services sector which gave him wealth of management and leadership exposures in the industry.