KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, the nation's first Islamic Bank, expects a 20 per cent growth in its financing activities this year, says managing director, Datuk Seri Zukri Samat.
He said this would be slightly lower compared with the 25 per cent growth registered last year.
Zukri added that this was probably impacted by some of Bank Negara Malaysia's measures to slow down the debt growth in the household sector.
He said 70 per cent of its financing went to the consumer segment followed by corporate and commercial sectors.
On its aim to become Malaysia's first mega Islamic bank, he said the bank was open to any merger and acquisition proposal but is not in talks with any party at this point in time.
Towards this end, he said the bank was looking for synergies in the partnership to complement the areas that the Islamic bank is lacking, for instance, corporate banking.
He was speaking to reporters after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Bank Islam, the National Cooperative Body of Malaysia (Angkasa), Visa Malaysia and Clixster Mobile Group.
Meanwhile, Angkasa president Datuk Abdul Fattah Abdullah said the collaboration would enhance the cooperative's services and provide convenient financial facilities for its 8.4 million members nationwide.
"Through its fully-owned subsidiary, MyAngkasa Holdings Sdn Bhd (MyAngkasa), Angkasa in collaboration with Bank Islam will introduce MyAngkasa Membership Card, essentially a Bank Islam Visa Debit Card-i with a number of unique features," he said.
Zukri added among the unique features and benefits were Coins Deposit Services (COINS), Angkasa Umrah Fund, Al-Awfar Account benefit, VISA payWave and VISA Direct.
He said the COINS feature is new and the first in the world which enables loose change amount to be stored directly onto the card itself and act as a 'coin-box' and credited into the customer's bank account on a periodic basis.
This is in conformance with Bank Negara's move to reduce coins circulation which had reached RM5 billion in the market, and to encourage the use of e-payment system, Zukri said.-- Bernama