AmBank Islamic positive to meet loan growth target

Official Launch of Azman Hashim International Business School Tan Sri Dr. Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur, Secretary General, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (far right) signing the plaque to officiate the launch of the Azman Hashim International Business School, witnessed by Tan Sri Azman Hashim, Chairman, AmBank Group (front row, 2nd from right), Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali, Chairman, UTM (far left), Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr. Wahid Omar, Vice-Chancellor, UTM (front row, 3rd from right), Dato’ Sulaiman Mohd Tahir, Group Chief Executive Officer, AmBank Group (2nd from left), Eqhwan Mokhzanee, Chief Executive Officer, AmBank Islamic (back row, 2nd from right) and Prof. Dr. Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail, Dean, Azman Hashim International Business School, UTM (back row, 4th from right).

by SHAHEERA AZNAM SHAH

AmBank Islamic Bhd is confident to achieve its projected loan growth for the financial year ending March 31, 2018 (FY18), banking on the better economic performance which has benefitted the small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) financing.

CEO Eqhwan Mokhzanee Muhammad said the Islamic bank has been focusing on driving the SMEs realm under its four-year strategy plan as the small-capital entities comprise 98.5% of the local business.

“It is something to be announced soon, but we are optimistic to achieve the target we have set, driven by the SMEs financing performance and its mass affluent market in the local business,” he said at the launch of Azman Hashim International Business School and the tripartite collaboration between AmBank Islamic, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

In May 2017, he said the Islamic division of AMMB Holdings Bhd (AmBank) is expected to record a slightly higher growth in financing compared to the industry’s average projection, which stood between 4% and 5% in its FY18.

Meanwhile, the tripartite collaboration provides an enhanced payment platform for the benefactors of UTM’s education endowment fund to contribute through the online bill payment service, JomPAY.

“The collaboration with UTM and JomPAY is to embark on a value-based intermediation to further assist the university in creating a vibrant and conducive academic environment through the contribution channel, JomPAY,” he said. Operated by PayNet, JomPAY enables bill payment through Internet banking, mobile banking and automated teller machines present in more than 40 banks in Malaysia.

Eqhwan Mokhzanee said via AmBank, the endowment donation has a limit of RM50,000 per transaction with no minimum limit.

At present, the UTM’s endowment fund stood at RM87 million which has benefitted 751 students with academic distinction through scholarships and educational assistance since 2009.

UTM vice chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Wahid Omar said the university’s board is targeting to achieve RM500 million endowment by 2020, in order to continue assisting high potential and excellence UTM students.