This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 27, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: AMMB Holdings Bhd chairman Tan Sri Azman Hashim does not rule out buying ANZ Banking Group Ltd’s stake in AMMB if the Australian group decides to sell it.

“I’m just looking at the options first. If they are selling, then [buying the shares] is one of the options,” he told reporters yesterday.

“We don’t know yet. I am looking at all the options,” he added, when asked if he will consider buying ANZ’s stake.

ANZ is the largest shareholder of AMMB, also known as AmBank Group, with an indirect stake of 23.78%, held through ANZ Funds Pty Ltd.

Azman, who is also the founder of AmBank Group, holds a 12.97% stake. He is the third-largest shareholder after the Employees Provident Fund, which holds a 15.071% stake.

ANZ is reported to be considering the sale of its AMMB stake, as well as reducing its 20% stake in China’s Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, as it steps up efforts to exit minority stakes in Asia.

Azman, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Malaysian Banking Summit, was also asked to comment on the RM53.7 million penalty imposed on AMMB by Bank Negara Malaysia recently for violating banking regulations.

“It is a very expensive lesson, a big lesson and we are now working very hard to make sure that it does not happen again,” he said.

“Even banks like HSBC and Citibank, they have the best systems in the world but they were fined billions. So it’s human factor as well,” he said.

He said it would be difficult for him to guarantee that such violations would not recur as many people work for the group.

“I am talking about 12,000 people down the line there. Anyway, it is something we cannot avoid, [but] we need to try our best not to breach anything,” he added.

AMMB was fined by the central bank for breaching the Financial Services Act 2013, and the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 with respect to non-compliance with certain regulations by AmBank (M) Bhd and AmBank Islamic Bhd.

AMMB shares rose 18 sen or 4.12% to RM4.19 yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM12.63 billion.