Five-year plan for NPF control

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NPF down 6.73 pct from 10.7 pct as at end of 2008: Kuwait Finance House

SEPANG: Islamic bank group Kuwait Finance House Malaysia Bhd (KFHMB) is eyeing at a five-year plan to control its non-performing financing (NPF) to industry average. As of September last year, the bank’s NPF was levelled down at 6.73 per cent from 10.7 per cent as at end of 2008.“But it is still higher than the industry average of two per cent,” said its chief executive officer Jamelah Jamaluddin at a media briefing held at Pan Pacific Hotel KLIA here yesterday.

“We will concentrate on recovery measures for this year as well as business growth, within our retail sector and our investment banking segment,” she added.

“We have a five-year plan that will bring us in line with the industry.”

On the audit of its financial performance, Jamelah disclosed that there had yet to be any result, as it had only been one to one-and-a-half weeks since it was commissioned.

“It is to inculcate good culture and performance as well as good credit quality,” she explained.

KFHMB is the Malaysian operation for the Kuwaiti-based Kuwait Finance House Group. It is the first foreign Islamic bank to be licensed under the Southeast Asian countries’ Islamic Banking Act.

In addition, Jamelah disclosed that the bank would increase its financing by up to a tenth this year, compared to about eight per cent last year.

Meanwhile, KFHMB’s chairman Shaheen Al Ghanem reiterated that the bank would spend RM6 billion (US$1.84 billion) over 15 years to develop its project in the Iskandar Malaysia Corridor in southern Johor, a government-led effort to transform Malaysia into a banking, tourism and education hub.