Wednesday May 18, 2011
Bankers also do national service
Plain Speaking - By Yap Leng Kuen
POST financial crisis, a lot of “casualties'' especially in the form of loan restructuring and recovery. There are many instances of brave souls slogging away into the wee hours to come up with major restructuring schemes.
Famous examples include Danaharta, Danamodal and the Corporate Debt Restructuring Committee (CDRC). That was Malaysia's experience during the 1997 Asia financial crisis. On a wider scale, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and the US Government undertook massive restructuring of troubled mortgages and bank assets during the 2008 subprime crisis.
These are experiences of large organisations that are set up for the specific purpose of restructuring. They are backed by the government and exert considerable powers in the process.
But when Jamelah Jamaluddin joined Kuwait Finance House Malaysia Bhd (KFH) early last year, it was already some time after the financial crisis and many banks were already on the recovery path. At KFH Malaysia, it was different story. Overwhelmed by rising non-performing finance and a pile of debts, KFH Malaysia was in dire need of a revamp.
Why did Jamelah, who was already in a good position helming RHB Islamic Bank, jump into KFH Malaysia and its messy loan debt situation? Can't she just sit back and enjoy life? Instead, she found herself thick in the middle of an RM800mil debt pile at KFH Malaysia.
Unravelling that has taken a lot of her time while she also has to focus on building up the bank to offer the full suite of products under its universal banking licence. “When I first came in, I didn't know where to start,'' she said, looking visibly happier now that she has taken stock of all the assets.
Her journey at KFH Malaysia began one fine day when she received a call from one of the bosses from the headquarters. “He said We are in town and want to see you,” recalls Jamelah. Four high-profile men in business suits showed up and told her in no uncertain terms that they only wanted her for the job even though she had suggested some other names.
They all knew it would be no easy task to clean up the bank, which had been set up with much fanfare but was suffering under big losses. The business and management had to be revamped while an internal audit was conducted. Hers was a tough job and there was no time for a popularity contest.
“I like challenges and to do things differently,'' she said. Work satisfaction and personal achievement are important to her. Already a successful merchant banker of 25 years, she decided to switch career path to Islamic banking and was deputy CEO of KFH Malaysia when it started five years ago. “There are a lot of new and exciting things to learn in Islamic banking,'' she said. “It's all up to the person. Passion is what drives an Islamic banker to excel and learn new things everyday.''
Next, she is going into retail banking for KFH Malaysia - a new field for her which she finds interesting and stimulating.
Apart from personal achievement, Jamelah also sees her work at KFH Malaysia as part of national service. “It is not for the money,'' she said. “It is also our duty to ensure that the interests of foreign investors, in this case the Kuwaitis, are looked after well as they have poured into a huge amount into this investment.''
In the context of national service, a lot of names come to mind. Within the banking fraternity, Datuk Seri Hamidy Hafiz who retired as CEO of Affin Bank, is chairman of the revived CDRC and national guarantee corporation, Danajamin.
Tan Sri Amirsham Abdul Aziz, who retired as Maybank president and CEO, was appointed chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) in June 2009.
Associate editor Yap leng Kuan is happy that money is not the only buzz word in the corporate world.
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/18/business/8703279&sec=business
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Bankers also do national service
Plain Speaking - By Yap Leng Kuen
POST financial crisis, a lot of “casualties'' especially in the form of loan restructuring and recovery. There are many instances of brave souls slogging away into the wee hours to come up with major restructuring schemes.
Famous examples include Danaharta, Danamodal and the Corporate Debt Restructuring Committee (CDRC). That was Malaysia's experience during the 1997 Asia financial crisis. On a wider scale, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and the US Government undertook massive restructuring of troubled mortgages and bank assets during the 2008 subprime crisis.
These are experiences of large organisations that are set up for the specific purpose of restructuring. They are backed by the government and exert considerable powers in the process.
But when Jamelah Jamaluddin joined Kuwait Finance House Malaysia Bhd (KFH) early last year, it was already some time after the financial crisis and many banks were already on the recovery path. At KFH Malaysia, it was different story. Overwhelmed by rising non-performing finance and a pile of debts, KFH Malaysia was in dire need of a revamp.
Why did Jamelah, who was already in a good position helming RHB Islamic Bank, jump into KFH Malaysia and its messy loan debt situation? Can't she just sit back and enjoy life? Instead, she found herself thick in the middle of an RM800mil debt pile at KFH Malaysia.
Unravelling that has taken a lot of her time while she also has to focus on building up the bank to offer the full suite of products under its universal banking licence. “When I first came in, I didn't know where to start,'' she said, looking visibly happier now that she has taken stock of all the assets.
Her journey at KFH Malaysia began one fine day when she received a call from one of the bosses from the headquarters. “He said We are in town and want to see you,” recalls Jamelah. Four high-profile men in business suits showed up and told her in no uncertain terms that they only wanted her for the job even though she had suggested some other names.
They all knew it would be no easy task to clean up the bank, which had been set up with much fanfare but was suffering under big losses. The business and management had to be revamped while an internal audit was conducted. Hers was a tough job and there was no time for a popularity contest.
“I like challenges and to do things differently,'' she said. Work satisfaction and personal achievement are important to her. Already a successful merchant banker of 25 years, she decided to switch career path to Islamic banking and was deputy CEO of KFH Malaysia when it started five years ago. “There are a lot of new and exciting things to learn in Islamic banking,'' she said. “It's all up to the person. Passion is what drives an Islamic banker to excel and learn new things everyday.''
Next, she is going into retail banking for KFH Malaysia - a new field for her which she finds interesting and stimulating.
Apart from personal achievement, Jamelah also sees her work at KFH Malaysia as part of national service. “It is not for the money,'' she said. “It is also our duty to ensure that the interests of foreign investors, in this case the Kuwaitis, are looked after well as they have poured into a huge amount into this investment.''
In the context of national service, a lot of names come to mind. Within the banking fraternity, Datuk Seri Hamidy Hafiz who retired as CEO of Affin Bank, is chairman of the revived CDRC and national guarantee corporation, Danajamin.
Tan Sri Amirsham Abdul Aziz, who retired as Maybank president and CEO, was appointed chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) in June 2009.
Associate editor Yap leng Kuan is happy that money is not the only buzz word in the corporate world.
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/18/business/8703279&sec=business
---
Wednesday May 18, 2011
Kuwait Finance House recovery on track
By YAP LENG KUEN
lengkuen@thestar.com.my
Islamic bank carrying out revamp under 5-year plan
KUALA LUMPUR: Kuwait Finance House (M) Bhd (KFH), the largest Islamic bank in terms of capital, aims to get back into the limelight for the right reasons. The last time it attracted media interest was following news of an internal audit on a net loss and surge in non-performing finance (NPF).
Prior to that, news that it had discontinued the rating services by RAM Ratings, to be in line with the rating practices of the parent and group.
Having engaged the services of Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC). this decision was part of its cost rationalisation; nevertheless, it had sparked speculation as to what else could be going on at KFH.
Jamelah Jamaluddin
“We have taken stock of all our assets,'' CEO Jamelah Jamaluddin told StarBiz. “We feel more comfortable now as we know which are the accounts that need to be restructured.''
Declining to divulge further details, she said that of the total group assets of RM10.9bil, “only a fraction'' needed to be restructured or recovered.
“The recovery process is doing well since it started last year,'' she said. More than RM100mil out of debts of RM792mil has been recovered or restructured.
The internal audit has been completed and findings handed over to the authorities.
“The board is aware of the findings,'' Jamelah said. “We have not taken any legal action as more groundwork is to be done. Whether there will be a legal case eventually, we do not know. It is too preliminary.''
Under its five-year transformation plan, the focus this year will be three-pronged branding, building up human resource capability and change in corporate culture.
Under its current emphasis to grow retail business in line with its universal banking concept, more branding activities are targeted. Staff quality, competency and diversity will also be strengthened while the mentoring process is under way.
Meanwhile, the culture should reflect the values and expectations of an Islamic bank, she said. “It's in the way we behave, dress and take care of our clients. We must show fairness, integrity and honesty,'' she said.
“We believe the numbers will come once we have diversified the business, and set up the correct focus and system of values,'' she said. Last year, the emphasis was on improving asset quality, recovery and business growth.
KFH Malaysia, which has 10 branches, returned to the black in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2010 with a profit of RM13mil from a net loss of RM35.5mil in the previous corresponding quarter but reported a full year (FY10) net loss of RM75.6mil which more than double its net loss the year before.
As part of its group-wide strategic planning, KFH Malaysia aims to enhance its position as the hub for South-East Asia with a possible presence in Indonesia.
In Australia, KFH is pursuing deals via its advisory licence with an expected bilateral loan signing in the horizon. “The loan will be structured in an Islamic way and we are working with a bank in Australia,'' she said,
Under its five-year plan which ends in 2014, KFH Malaysia targets to grow both the retail and wholesale business. “We started five years ago on the wholesale business and are now picking up on retail banking. More branches will be set up along with alternative distribution channels, new products and services.
“A year ago, we started to enhance our policies, the respective standard operating procedures, credit control and risk management. We are now embarking on portfolio or industry focus,'' said Jamelah.
In the wholesale area, the focus will be building quality assets and driving fee-based income; in the capital markets, it will be issuance of local and foreign denominated sukuk.
Among the winning retail strategies at KFH Malaysia is the introduction of the gold account, which sells physical gold and acts as a deposit account.
“Leveraging on the expertise of our sister company in Turkey, we have mastered the procedure for managing the gold account,'' she said, adding that the bank hoped to sell one tonne of gold by year-end compared with 500kg currently.
“We will innovate and ride on our group-wide suite of products which we will adapt for local use,'' she said.
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/18/business/8696207&sec=business
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