Maybank, the largest bank and financial group in Malaysia, has launched a new Islamic banking subsidiary, Maybank Islamic Berhad, as of 1 January. Ibrahim Hassan, currently Maybank's head of Islamic banking, has been appointed as its acting chief executive. At the same time the group reaffirmed it focus on three key strategic businesses - international currency business unit, Islamic investment banking and Islamic wealth management. Datuk Amirsham Aziz, president and chief executive of Maybank, said: "The group continues to compete aggressively in the challenging Islamic financing market both locally and on a global level. Moving ahead, our plan is to offer our customers more innovative products and services, as we will now be able to utilise the Musyarakah principle of equity participation, as well as take advantage of the many benefits and incentives given under the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre." Maybank began offering Islamic financing in 1993 through the Islamic windows operations and is the largest Islamic financial services provider in the Asia Pacific region with an asset size of over MYR23 billion ($7 billion). To date, Maybank has 12 fully fledged Islamic banking branches in addition to 376 branches and 20 private banking centres locally offering Islamic banking products and services. “From a strategic point of view, we have identified three areas of focus for the group. In addition to our stronghold in domestic Islamic business, we intend to capitalise on the offshore Islamic business,” said Mr Amirsham. He also stated that Maybank Islamic will be focusing on Islamic wealth management locally and at targeted overseas markets. Globally, Shariah-compliant financial products have attracted more than $250 billion, with an annual growth of 23.5 per cent per annum over the last five years. “Indeed, Maybank is looking beyond the shores of Malaysia in the area of Islamic wealth management in view of the tremendous amount of excess liquidity generated given the surge in oil prices,” added Mr Amirsham. Mr Amirsham said that it was within the group’s plans in the short to medium term to see its Islamic banking business expand in terms of geographic frontiers. “We see our growth path to be both organic and inorganic and will continue to look out for value creation opportunities by way of strategic alliances or through mergers and acquisitions."