BANK Islam Malaysia Bhd (BIMB), the country’s first Islamic bank, expects a 20 per cent loans growth this year, derived mainly from the consumer segment.
“We are looking at a growth of 20 per cent in lending this year, which is double the market growth. We grew as much as 25 per cent last year.
“About 70 per cent of this targeted growth will be from consumers, in addition to the corporate and commercial segments,” said its managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat at a media conference after the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the MyAngkasa smartcard with the National Cooperative Body of Malaysia (Angkasa), Clixster Mobile Group and Visa Malaysia.
The overall financing sector is expected to grow nine to 10 per cent this year.
Zukri said BIMB has one of the best gross non-performing financing facilities in the country, which is now at 1.2 per cent.
The MyAngkasa multipurpose smartcard, which is essentially a Bank Islam Visa Debit Card-i, is targeted to attract 600,000 new subscribers in the next year, which is exclusively for Angkasa members. It is due to be out in November.
Some of the attractive features in the smartcard are coins deposit services using a “back-end purse”, Visa payWave contactless payment technologies, which include
a 20 per cent discount on Express Rail Link tickets, special promotions at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlets and free items for AEON shoppers.
Meanwhile, commenting on the bank’s planned sukuk to raise RM1 billion, Zukri said it will be issued in several tranches with its first tranche expected by the end of this year.
“We are looking to issue RM300 million to RM400 million. Based on our financing growth, RM300 million will be sufficient for the time being,” added Zukri.
The bank is still awaiting approval from Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission Malaysia to move forward with the sukuk issuance, which will be used to raise funds for organic growth as well as for future acquisitions, possibly in Indonesia.