PETALING JAYA: OCBC Al-Amin Financial institution Bhd, one of many prime two overseas Islamic banks within the nation when it comes to asset dimension, is taking value-based intermediation (VBI) to the next stage at a time when inexperienced financing and sustainability points are on the fore.
VBI, an initiative beneath Financial institution Negara, is an industry-driven sustainability initiative geared toward strengthening the roles of Islamic banking establishments in producing a optimistic and sustainable affect on the financial system, group and setting.
OCBC Al-Amin CEO Tuan Syed Abdul Aziz Syed Kechik (pic) instructed StarBiz that the financial institution would strengthen its VBI to a brand new stage with extra sustainability-linked and inexperienced financing initiatives slated for this yr.
“We pays shut consideration to sustainable financing alternatives as a part of our long-term progress technique inside the established accountable financing framework.
“The plan is to proceed on the observe of “inexperienced financing” together with the financing of renewable power initiatives which embody giant scale photo voltaic photovoltaic and rooftop solar energy vegetation. Whereas these kind of financing are extra challenge particular, we’re additionally trying into offering sustainability-linked financing to clients for his or her basic company functions.
“The sustainability-linked financing acknowledges and incentivises them for assembly particular sustainability targets in relation to their environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives,” he famous.
He mentioned the financial institution’s danger administration functionality has additionally been enhanced to assist the risk-taking selections in rising the sustainable portfolio by integrating ESG evaluation into its credit score analysis and approval course of.
OCBC Al-Amin is among the market leaders in sustainability-linked and renewable power financing particularly for large-scale photo voltaic and rooftop photo voltaic initiatives. OCBC Al-Amin is a wholly-owned unit of OCBC Financial institution.
Collaborating with OCBC Financial institution funding banking division, Syed Abdul Aziz mentioned it could work alongside clients to assist them regularly rework and transcend their enterprise actions to advertise energetic adoption of ESG greatest practices in the direction of attaining carbon neutrality by 2050, aligned to the VBI initiatives.OCBC Al -Amin was a joint lead arranger and joint sustainability adviser for the RM3bil Sukuk Wakalah Program established by KPJ Healthcare Bhd just lately. The financial institution additionally efficiently organized for a maiden issuance of AAA-rated Sukuk Kelestarian for Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd the place OCBC Al-Amin was the only real overseas financial institution appointed as joint lead supervisor.
He mentioned regardless of the continued challenges led to by the Covid-19 pandemic, OCBC Al-Amin is seeking to uphold its place as one of many main overseas Islamic banks in Malaysia.
He mentioned this is able to be underpinned by the power of its guardian financial institution’s OCBC franchise, in addition to by managing dangers and maximizing collaboration inside enterprise models.
Apart from this, Syed Abdul Aziz mentioned it could proceed to develop its wealth administration merchandise platform and broaden its relationship with top-tier corporates together with government-linked corporations and Bursa Malaysia’s Syariah Index corporations alongside supporting native and regional enterprise improvement ambitions.
Since OCBC Al-Amin’s institution in 2008, it has grown to its present RM17.5bil in property as at Sept 30, 2021 and stays among the many prime two overseas Islamic banks within the nation.
Income for the 9 months ended Sept 30, 2021 stood at RM353mil, a 9% enhance over the identical interval the earlier yr. Web revenue grew 20% to RM57mil from RM47mil beforehand. On the outlook of Islamic banking in 2022, he mentioned Islamic banks have confirmed to be resilient. Because the financial system recovers farther from the pandemic, he mentioned the primary progress drivers of Islamic banking could be enlargement of capability and financing portfolio.
According to the newly issued Monetary Sector Blueprint (2022-2026), which bodes properly for the {industry}, he mentioned the elemental aim is to boost the scale of the value-based financing portfolio able to producing a useful affect on the financial system, group , and setting. In essence, it promotes the worth of syariah’s maqasid (objectives or aims), he mentioned, including that that is optimistic for the {industry}.
The general Islamic banking system’s market share by whole financing was 41% in 2020, up from 22.7% in 2010.
Elaborating on the challenges for the {industry} this yr, Syed Abdul Aziz added: “In 2022, geopolitical instability could threaten the worldwide financial progress, which can not directly or straight affect Malaysia’s Islamic banking sector. Regardless of the home eco-readiness to assist the {industry}, its enlargement inside the context of value-based finance may very well be restricted by a shortage of vibrant expertise in strengthening its capabilities.”