Wednesday, June 06, 2012

MALAYSIA - BANKING - Maybank Islamic reports 50/50 split of Muslim/non Muslim customers

www.cpifinancial.net  - Product innovation and knowledge of local market wins over customers of any religion, according to Maybank Islamic’s CEO, Muzaffar Hisham.


The demographic of Maybank Islamic’s customers is a 50/50 split of Muslims/non Muslims, Hisham revealed to Islamic Business & Finance on the sidelines of the 3rd World Islamic Banking Conference Asia Summit.
“One of the reasons is because we are able to price our products to be more competitive, secondly we have some advantages from the Government including tax incentives – not big ones, but small ones but that helps,” said Hisham. (source)


“Of course Malaysia has a Muslim majority, but what is key to us a group, Maybank particularly, is that when we come up with a product yes, Shari’ah compliance is key, it’s a prerequisite, but the drive for innovation and the drive to make sure the product suits the consumer, both Muslim and non Muslim, is out priority.
“We have to make sure as a group we connect resources effectively and efficiently,” he continued. “We have this policy called ‘Islamic first’ policy in Malaysia; all of our branches are an Islamic branch and also a conventional branch, so we have to be pragmatic in terms of that group. For us, the key value proposition for anyone who walks into that branch has the best of conventional and Islamic products.
Of course, the market varies from Dubai to Malaysia, or anywhere else in the world in terms of marketing strategy. “It’s how do you want to position yourself, Hisham told Islamic Business & Finance. “You need to understand your market – what is of value to your customers, and the returns to the bank as well because ultimately the shareholders are paramount – we have to ensure profitability, proper risk management and adequacy of capital is preserved. I wouldn’t apply the same model to Dubai, or even Indonesia, you need to understand the local market.”

Source: http://www.cpifinancial.net/news/post/14331/maybank-islamic-reports-50-50-split-of-muslim-non-muslim-customers  - June 5, 2012

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