CIMB Islamic Bank
Over the last decade, CIMB Islamic Bank, led by chief executive Ahmad Shahriman Mohd Shariff, has emerged as a premier medium-sized, full-service Islamic franchise in the Asean region.
CIMB Islamic Bank achieved that by adopting a dual banking model: offering the most comprehensive Shariah-compliant investment, consumer, commercial and private banking as well as asset management models in southeast Asia, while leveraging the full universe of CIMB Group resources.
That scale came in handy in the past 18 months, when pandemic-related dislocations shook southeast Asia. CIMB is the region’s fifth-biggest bank by assets, and has 34,000 staff and more than 16 million customers.
CIMB Islamic holds a special place in the broader institution’s heart: it opened in 2003, at around the time that CIMB Group listed on the main board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. And, of course, it has buttressed the broader group’s balance sheet: CIMB Islamic’s total assets rose 13% in 2020, while deposits increased 8%.
The Islamic bank’s regional debt capital markets franchise is the only one in Malaysia with a comprehensive product suite spanning multiple asset classes.