Bank Islam CEO Mohd Muazzam Mohamed (Photo by Patrick Goh/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (June 26): Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd said there is currently no plan to enter into mergers and acquisitions (M&As) with any entities, according to chief executive officer Mohd Muazzam Mohamed.

Speaking at the media briefing on Bank Islam’s second half of 2023 economic outlook on Monday (June 26), Mohd Muazzam said the bank will continue to focus on investing into its operations.

“We don’t have that plan, but obviously in terms of our investment going forward, it’s always been deepening our capability in the areas of our institutional banking, our wealth management, in terms of acquiring the talents, and also in the (digital) infrastructure for us to be able to continue to grow in this new areas,” he said.

Bank Islam, which is the largest standalone Islamic bank with assets of RM89.85 billion, said it welcomes any competition from the Islamic banking industry that will help the subsector to continue to grow.

“It shows that there is ample opportunity for everybody, and I welcome the development of Islamic banking,” he said in regards to the M&A between Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) and Malaysian Industrial Development Finance (MIDF) .

Earlier this month, MBSB acquired the entire equity interest in MIDF from Permodalan Nasional Bhd via a RM1.01 billion share deal.

The merged entity would be equipped with RM61.79 billion in assets, further cementing MBSB as the second-largest standalone Islamic bank after Bank Islam.

Allocates RM250 million capex for digital infrastructure

Mohd Muazzam said Bank Islam has allocated about RM250 million in capital expenditure (capex) for 2023 to upgrade its IT infrastructure and all digital channels as well as other infrastructures.

“That [amount] has already been invested. So what we just need to do is to continue to accelerate that programme,” he said.

He shared that the bank has already had plans to address the capacity of users to the mobile app in efforts to solve the ongoing disruption issues on its internet banking website and app.

“The capacity requirement [issue] comes earlier than what we estimated, so we just need to continue to do that (to solve the issue),” he added

On Friday, numerous Bank Islam users via social media reported that Bank Islam’s internet banking website and the Go app were inaccessible due to high traffic volume. The users have also complained that the issue always occurs every month on payday.

At the time of writing, shares in Bank Islam rose six sen or 3.11% to RM1.99, valuing the group at RM4.51 billion.

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