SINGAPORE, July 16 — Maybank Group nine months ago announced its refined corporate strategy, M25+, that will see it driving more meaningful differentiation in five key strategic thrusts and accelerating the development of key capabilities for sustainable long-term growth anchored on a deeper purpose.

To support the intended outcomes of its five strategic thrusts, the bank has identified 12 Strategic Programmes that will strengthen its foundation and competitiveness by creating the greatest value, customer experience uplift, cross-sector collaboration, and regional integration group-wide enabled by technology.

One of these Strategic Programmes is to build a global Islamic banking leadership through the establishment of global Islamic wealth management hubs in Singapore and Dubai.

During Invest Asean, Maybank’s flagship conference held in Singapore recently, its group chief executive officer (CEO) of Islamic Banking Datuk Mohamed Rafique Merican shared with Bernama the unstoppable journey in pursuing these global aspirations.

Why in Singapore, a non-Islamic country?

"We want a place whereby people are comfortable to actually invest or put their money in. We have to be where the people are,” Mohamed Rafique replied.

"Maybe gradually after a few years...there could be other centres for Islamic wealth management but currently in this region, in Singapore. Hong Kong is the other one but Hong Kong maybe in the future phase that we will think about.”

Mohamed Rafique said there is a 15 per cent Muslim population in Singapore "but it is also a sizeable amount of money being managed on behalf of other Muslim players (where) currently the offering is conventional.”

He noted that Muslims in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and even from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) put their money here for obvious reasons such as for "diversification and returns.”

"We feel that if this is the meeting point, then it is an opportunity for us to actually provide a different proposition, which is Islamic finance.

"Nobody is offering it in the scale that we are trying to envision here based on five pillars where it meets your requirements not just from a financing or banking perspective but all the way to how you distribute based on faraid.”

The five pillars refer to creation, accumulation, preservation, purification, and distribution that Maybank holds strongly.

What’s the feedback from the Singapore authority?

"From their standpoint, Singapore is open for business. From the engagements with the regulators here, they welcome it because it is a unique proposition. Of course, we have to comply with regulations but we have offered Islamic products here in Singapore for many years.

"Singapore is a wealth management house. They like the idea,” said Mohamed Rafique who was appointed to the current position on July 1, 2016.

According to him, Islamic wealth management is existent in Singapore but is not based on the five pillars.

"Sometimes conventional would say we can provide those things (as well), but can you provide us with that spiritual side? We are following the advice from the Shariah side not just (based on) logically legally and what makes sense.”

Is Maybank Islamic sizeable enough for expansion?

Currently, about 67 per cent of financing for Maybank Malaysia is already Islamic.

Combined with two other footprints – Singapore and Indonesia – it has contributed close to 40 per cent to the profit before tax of Maybank Group.

From an asset perspective, Maybank Islamic is number five in the top 10, the only Malaysian bank and the only non-GCC bank in the list.

"So it is sizeable,” said the CEO.

"Our view is, now that we have actually grown this to a certain scale (but) where can we take it? Now that we actually have a strong franchise, can we take it forward?

"Can we actually start expanding and make offering more widely available beyond just the three countries that we have (a presence in)?,” asked Mohamed Rafique.

Where do you see Maybank Islamic in five to 10 years’ time?

"My own aspiration is to be able to see that one day somebody travels to other parts of the world to talk about Islamic finance and hopefully they can say they learn few things from us and they can actually apply (them) to the whole country,” he said.

That is one side of it.

He also hoped that Islamic finance will actually grow to a level whereby it becomes the real alternative to conventional finance.

"It has soul to it.. it is guided by Shariah. It provides a different way of how we should look at.”

Mohamed Rafique noted that Islamic wealth management is a unique proposition "that is currently not as widely known, or basically shared with everyone.

"We think there is demand for that because the Muslim population globally is about 1.7 billion or about 25 per cent of the global population. We can serve them based on their Shariah needs,” he concluded. — Bernama