HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd said it will sharpen the focus on Islamic banking to further ride on the strong demand for

Shariah-based products in the country, executive director and deputy chief executive officer, Jonathan Addis said.

“Overall, we see the Islamic business growing faster than the conventional segment and we will continue to concentrate on this very heavily via our Shariah-compliant unit, HSBC Amanah,” he told Bernama in an interview.

Addis said HSBC Malaysia will continue to invest in the country by opening new branches while more Islamic-based offerings will be rolled out to cater to the growing demand for Shariah-based products.

“We will continue to try and get a new range of products, both from the commercial and lending side, while hedging products for the corporate segment.

“We will also seek to secure products in the area of Shariah-compliant profit rate swap and trade finance while striving to be innovative in this area,” he added.

Asked about lending growth, he said the lending industry is expected to exceed the growth of the country, at between five to six per cent.

“The retail side will remain steady and relatively strong with the personal loans growth still quite strong.

“On the commercial side, we also see a big impact from the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), with big projects coming in and this will generate growth, in this area,” Addis said.

Source : Bernama. com