Published May 19, 2009

Maybank Islamic not eyeing strategic partner

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(KUALA LUMPUR) Maybank Islamic, Asia-Pacific's largest syariah bank, is not currently seeking a strategic partner, its acting chief said yesterday, after earlier talk that it would merge with the country's No 2 Islamic bank.

'Not at the moment ... not at entity level,' acting CEO Ibrahim Hassan told reporters, when asked if the bank was seeking a strategic partner.

Mr Ibrahim said Maybank Islamic, a unit of Malayan Banking, is only interested in partnerships for specific business products such as the joint issue of credit cards.

He said the launch of two new Islamic financial products yesterday would secure RM2 billion (S$825 million) in deposits within one year and RM4 billion in deposits in the financial year to June 2010.

Malaysian financial group BIMB Holdings Bhd in February denied that it was in talks to merge its syariah banking subsidiary Bank Islam with Maybank Islamic.

Talk of a Maybank Islamic-Bank Islam merger came as several other banks in the rapidly growing sector said they were seeking acquisition opportunities to boost their size - although a global economic slump could put a brake on expansion plans.

The US$1 trillion Islamic banking industry lacks lenders.

Saudi's Al Rajhi Bank, which says it is the world's top Islamic bank, has a market capitalisation of US$27.7 billion, compared with Bank of America's US$68 billion. -- Reuters