UOB
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the Wee family’s Singapore-based United Overseas Bank should feel suitably complimented. Singaporean banks like UOB are the regional industry standard that big Malaysian banks, such as Maybank, say they benchmark against for product range, service and prudential management.
UOB has brought those Singapore standards to Malaysian customers, and has become the Malaysia’s biggest locally incorporated foreign bank in asset size and branch network in the process. UOB Malaysia now boasts assets closing in on RM120 billion ($28 billion), which helped it generate profits of RM291 million for the first quarter this year.
Though a late entrant to Islamic banking in KL — it opened its Shariah bank only a year ago — UOB Malaysia is also building up its Islamic banking footprint, and expects to add around RM4 billion ($1 billion) in Shariah deposits up to 2020, partly by trading off the goodwill of its existing bank in Malaysia.