OCBC Al-AMIN Bank Bhd, a new full-fledged Islamic bank owned by Singapore's OCBC Bank, aims to grow its Islamic assets by at least 10 per cent next year as it develops more syariah-compliant products.
OCBC Bank owned RM3.7 billion Islamic banking assets as at December 31 2007, accounting for nine per cent of its total assets.
In Malaysia, Islamic banking accounts for 16.7 per cent of the country's banking assets.
OCBC Al-Amin plans to launch four products related to trade financing, mainly based on the Murabahah principles, within this month, chief executive officer Syed Abdull Aziz Syed Kechik said.
Murabahah requires that the cost and profit margins are made known and agreed upon upfront by all parties involved. This is currently applied to OCBC Al-Amin's financing and trade financing products.
Syed Abdull Aziz noted that Islamic banking products have fast expanded over the past few years and have now covered some of the space previously occupied by conventional banking products. This includes capital markets, retail banking, takaful, corporate financing, investment and unit trusts.
"For the moment, we are looking to apply the principles of Murabahah, Mudharabah and Ijarah in more areas with these categories to enhance our product line," he said after opening OCBC Al-Amin's first branch at Jaya One, an upcoming commercial centre in Petaling Jaya yesterday.
It will add four more branches next year, mainly in the major cities.
Meanwhile, OCBC Bank's chief executive officer Jeffrey Chew Sun Teong said overall loan growth overall is expected to cool next year as financing demand for large items like cars and houses slows.
He expects loans to expand at the rate of low teens or perhaps high single-digit percentage in 2009, after growth in the teens this year.
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