Maybank Islamic positive on new requirement

The investment account will take effect on June 16 and will see Maybank Islamic investing in a diversified portfolio of assets.

KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank Islamic Bhd expects the bulk of its mudarabah deposit account holders to reclassify their accounts to mudarabah investment account (IA), in compliance with Bank Negara’s requirement.

Chief executive officer Muzaffar Hisham said the 350,000 customers of the bank’s existing mudarabah deposit products had been given until May 31 to consent to either have their accounts reclassified as IA or other syariah-compliant deposit products.

Muzaffar was speaking to reporters after the announcement of the mudarabah IA yesterday.

Some 70%-80% of the bank’s customers were expected to make the switch as the IA was a compliance requirement arising from the central bank’s Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, Muzaffar told reporters after the announcement of the mudarabah IA yesterday.

The IA will take effect on June 16 and will see the bank investing in a diversified portfolio of assets with capital preservation being a central objective for the management of the IA.

“Customers have the choice of not responding to the deadline.

“If they do not respond by the deadline or indicate they are not opting for the investment account, they will be reclasiffied to other syariah-compliant deposit including wadiah,” he said.

Muzaffar said the current features of the current and savings account (CASA) deposit comprised 0% to 2% indicative profit per annum while the profit payment frequency was either monthly, half-yearly or annually.

“Under the investment account, we are looking at potential returns of between 1% and 3.5 % for CASA based on fund performance and profit will be paid monthly,” he said.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014, Maybank Islamic’s total assets grew 17% year-on-year to RM146.4bil. — Bernama