This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 18, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Afidah Mohd Ghazali (pic), the chief financial officer (CFO) and acting president and chief executive offcier (CEO) of Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd (BPMB), is understood to have left the development financial institution, sources familiar with the matter told The Edge Financial Daily.

The circumstances of her departure were not clear at press time.

“[I] am not sure why and what [the] circumstances [were] but she [has] left,” one source with knowledge of the matter said. Another source aware of the ongoings at BPMB said that he had heard her departure was imminent but was unsure if she had left.

She had taken over the helm of BPMB shortly after the previous CEO Shaharuddin Zainuddin left in July last year.

There had been speculation that her replacement could be Arshad Mohamed Ismail, who is currently head of corporate and investment banking at Maybank Islamic.

It is also understood that BPMB chairman Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz has stepped down after his contract expired and may be replaced by Datuk Zaiton Mohd Hassan, who is on the board of pilgrim fund Lembaga Tabung Haji.

She also set up Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd or MARC in 1996 and was its president and executive director until 2004.

According to sources, there could be more changes at the board and top management of BPMB, with more prominent executives expected to leave.

BPMB has been having issues for a while now, with some of its loans coming under scrutiny.