Maybank, Malaysia's biggest lender, aims to grow the share of Islamic financing to 33 percent of total lending by 2015 from 24 percent in March, as such lending is outpacing growth seen in conventional banking. The growth will largely be driven by the Malaysian business, followed by Indonesia, where it is seeking to increase the share of Islamic financing from 1 percent to 2-3 percent of the business by 2015, CEO Abdul Wahid told reporters in Singapore.
"The rate of growth at 25 percent per annum is double that of conventional (banking) growth," he said. Maybank is the biggest player in the Malaysian Islamic financing market, with a 17 percent share of sharia-compliant assets followed by CIMB. In Sinapore, the bank is dedicating one of its branches as an Islamic banking centre in an area largely populated by the Muslim Malay community and plans to launch new products such as sharia-compliant mortgages, he said.