IslamicFinance.de

A leadership position with foreign bank in KL to manage Islamic branches to achieve the targets / standards for sales, service quality and risk management.

Alliance Financial Group (AFG) is selling its 30% stake in AFG Takaful to American International Assurance. The stake comprises 30 million shares of RM1 each, and is being sold for RM45mil. AIA AFG Takaful's core business is to carry out family takaful business. AFG said the disposal was not expected to have any material effect on AFG's net assets per share, earnings per share and gearing of AFG for FY ending March 31, 2013.

Construction-based Eversendai Corp Bhd’s majority shareholder feels the company is undervalued and does not reflect the company’s true business potential and track record. Eversendai’s executive chairman and group managing director AK Nathan said that right now it is important to build up the base, build up the business. He also opined that the share price can not be suppressed for too long. However, construction stocks in Malaysia have been underperforming at the moment. Moreover, Eversendai’s lack of liquidity is also an issue in attracting fund managers to invest in the company.

According to CIMB Equities Research, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are still high on Affin Holdings's agenda to support its future growth. Hence, Affin is still planning to acquire Bank Muamalat. The banking group has submitted the offer and is waiting for the response from the owner of Bank Muamalat. It could also be interested in bidding for HwangDBS Investment Bank. CIMB Research said Affin is now reportedly less keen to purchase Bank Ina Perdana in Indonesia due to the 40% shareholding cap imposed by the Indonesian central bank.

According to Bahrain central bank executive director Khalid Hamad Abdul Rahman Hamad, making Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) standard mandatory is essential to take Islamic finance to the next level which is internationalisation. Until now, the articles of association of IFSB is voluntary and does not require the member countries to adopt. With the standard being mandatory, situations or regulatory arbitrage can be avoided. Moreover, Khalid Hamad noted that growth for a certain industry would require proper regulations, good standards in accounting, practice, prudential and skilled resources. He added that Islamic finance must invest in syariah-compliant instruments that create value for the society.

Bank Islam Malaysia has defended its recent move to suspend its chief economist Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajuddin after he had predicted a narrow win for Pakatan Rakyat in the upcoming general election. However, a bank source said predictions on the elections are personal opinions that don't in anyway affect financial institutions like Bank Islam. Nevertheless, the bank discovered evidence of violations of the bank's internal policies that were so serious that warranted the bank to lodge a report with the commercial crime division of the police. Further internal investigations by the bank also revealed that Azrul had sent out series of emails relating to the bank's official documents from his office to third parties, including confidential minutes of the bank's board meeting. Azrul is due to appear before the bank's disciplinary board in March.

Great Eastern Takaful Sdn Bhd (Great Eastern Takaful) has appointed Zafri Abdul Halim as the CEO, effective from March 1, 2013. Before, he was the company’s chief financial officer. Zafri holds a Master of Science in Project Management from George Washington University and a Bachelors Degree in Accountancy in addition to being a member of Malaysian Institute of Accountant and a certified Chartered Accountant. He said, Great Eastern Takaful will pursue its main strategies in penetrating the local market with its dual agency approach and direct agency under Great Eastern Takaful Own Agency (GOA).

State-owned Export-Import Bank of Malaysia (Exim Bank) plans to sell Islamic bonds in the global market. They invited proposals from banks to arrange US$1bil (RM3.1bil) of dollar-denominated debt for a possible second-quarter offering. The lender aimed to increase the proportion of syariah loans to 30% of the total in two years from 20% now, chief executive officer Adissadikin Ali said. Exim Bank will become only the fourth Asian corporate to ever tap dollar sukuk investors.

RAM Ratings has received confirmation from the facility agent that Al-‘Aqar Capital fully redeemed all the outstanding Class A Islamic Medium-Term Notes (IMTN), Class B IMTN, Class C IMTN and Islamic Commercial Papers (ICP) under its MYR 300 million Sukuk Ijarah Programme (2008/2013). RAM has withdrawn the respective AAA, AA2, AAA(bg) and P1 ratings of Al-‘Aqar Capital’s Class A IMTN, Class B IMTN, Class C IMTN and ICP, and no longer has any rating obligation on the debt facility.

Standard Chartered Saadiq Bhd (Saadiq), a wholly-owned Islamic bank subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia, launched its first branch in the state Sarawak. Saadiq chief executive officer (CEO) Wasim Saifi opened the branch located in Kuching, which was witnessed by Standard Chartered Malaysia consumer banking country head Sonia Wedrychowicz and government officials as well as the bank’s customers, partners and staff. Saadiq stated that the new branch opened seven days a week, extending its operations to weekends in order to improve customer access to the bank’s facilities and services.

Regulatory reforms are underway to help Malaysia’s Islamic banking industry expand further. According to the country’s master plan for capital markets development, Malaysia aims for a 40 per cent share of Islamic domestic financing by the year 2020 and intends to make the industry more international. Therefore, regulators are preparing to release a new legal framework for Islamic finance this year. However, private-sector banks need initiatives of their own, including steps to address a leadership vacuum and to strengthen their overseas strategies.

Siti Aminah Hj Abd Rahman, senior officer in Wealth Management at Baiduri Bank, spoke during a financial planning forum at the Ministry of Finance. She said a person's expenditure and lifestyle should be based on his or her income and explained the four concepts of financial planning. She also urged participants to consider insurance to protect themselves and loved ones, and added that those who are looking into investing should make sure to study the investment. Takaful Brunei Keluarga Senior Executive Officer Noor Amal Fitriyah Abd Rahim, emphasized the importance of insurance during her speech and recommended to being prepared to settle and manage debts as part of financial planning.

A group of mainly Malaysian academics and organizations published an advertisement in The Sun Daily asking Bank Islam Malaysia to lift its suspension of chief economist Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin. According to the 135 professionals, politicians and academics and 59 organizations, Azrul had given a professional opinion based on economics and that his academic freedom should be respected.

Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajuddin, Bank Islam’s recently suspended chief economist, is a member of the party PKR. However, PKR vice-president Mohd Azmin Ali said that Azrul’s party membership was irrelevant to his recent prediction that Pakatan Rakyat would win the 13th general election and that the analysis he gave is a professional opinion based on strong figures. However, Bank Islam released a statement yesterday saying the suspension was unrelated to Azrul’s personal political views.

Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia, reported a 24.3% jump in the net value of its investment portfolio in 2012, a profit before taxes of 2.1 billion ringgit, and a dividend payout to the Malaysian government of 1.0 billion ringgit. Khazanah cited its property development investments in Malaysia as well as initial public offerings by portfolio companies IHH Healthcare Berhad and cable-TV network Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad as factors contributing to its annual gains. In a separate announcement, Khazanah and Sun Life Financial Inc. announced plans to acquire insurance joint ventures CIMB Aviva Assurance Berhad and CIMB Aviva Takaful Berhad for C$586 million (US$594 million) from Aviva PLC. The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2013.

?Accountable for the entire business portfolio of New Market Business Development function.
?To penetrate into the Non-Muslim market, especially in the higher purchasing power category focusing on Family Business.
?To recruit, train and manage the productivity of the New Market Agency force.
?To source, recruit and develop 'New Market' agencies.

•Possess minimum SPM with strong credits in English and Mathematics or STPM. Diploma in Business related courses is preferred.

•Preferably with one year customer service experience in a shopping centre or the hospitality industry

•Good command of English and Bahasa Malaysia. Ability to speak Mandarin would be advantageous

•Degree, Post-Graduate Diploma or Professional degree in Computer Science/ Information Technology or equivalent preferably with 1-2 years' experience in applications development

•Programming skills in either of the following: Cobol, Smart/400 (Training will be provided)

•Experience in building Insurance System will be advantageous

Note: Fresh graduates who are interested to have a career in IT are encouraged to apply.

•To recruit Malay individuals from your own personal network to become agents of Great Eastern Takaful Sdn Bhd.
•To execute business plans and strategies in order to achieve goals set by the management.
•To train and motivate the recruits to become successful Takaful agents by achieving their sales targets.

· Plan, develop, promote and grow the Banca Business portfolio at the region by developing short and long term strategies, offering value added solution for the customers and ensuring the effective implementation of new business opportunities while retaining and growing existing account and executing retention strategies.
· Guide the Retail Insurance Managers towards providing excellent service and enhance service delivery to all customers touch-point.
· Assist Retail Insurance Managers in managing Insurance & Takaful Banca Business of Maybank Banca in the Region and deliver the Top line & PBT of the respective domains through sales and campaigns.