Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 1, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd’s Wan Razly Abdullah is said to be the top contender for the chief executive officer (CEO) post at Affin Bank Bhd, sources said.

Affin Bank’s current CEO, Kamarul Ariffin Mohd Jamil, is leaving the bank after five years in its driver’s seat. According to sources, his contract expires today.

At least three sources told theedgemarkets.com that Wan Razly is expected to be his successor. One said the appointment was still pending Bank Negara Malaysia’s approval.

“If all goes well, he is expected to come in sometime in the middle of the year,” the source said.

As at the time of writing, Affin Bank did not respond to requests for comment.

Wan Razly was the chief financial officer of CIMB Group’s Indonesian subsidiary, PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk, for some 10 years before he returned to Malaysia last year. He then became the group’s regional head for consumer strategic business management.

According to sources, Wan Razly has resigned from CIMB Group, yesterday being his last day. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

Wan Razly has previously worked at financial services group Northern Trust Corp and at PwC UK.

The Edge weekly, in its Feb 24 issue, reported Kamarul Ariffin’s impending departure from Affin Bank. Citing sources, the report also said there would be a new group managing director at Affin Hwang Capital to replace Datuk Maimoonah Hussain, who retired last November. The person is also expected to be an external candidate.

The change in leadership at Affin Bank comes following Datuk Agil Natt’s appointment as its new chairman on Nov 8 last year. Industry sources said Agil, a former banker with vast experience in corporate and investment banking as well as Islamic finance, was brought in to execute a much-needed shake-up at the bank.

Controlled by Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera, Affin Bank — the country’s second smallest banking group by assets — has been one of the weaker-performing banks in recent times.

It is understood that the group is looking for new blood and fresh ideas to take the bank forward, and as such, more personnel changes can be expected at the bank. Leadership will be particularly important now as the banking industry faces an unprecedented challenge dealing with the business and economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to stock exchange filings this year, the bank appointed Marzida Mohd Noor as an independent director on March 1. She has extensive experience in leading information technology  business change and transformation, having worked at Shell Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines Bhd. Abd Malik A Rahman, 71, who was previously an independent director, was redesignated as non-independent director.

Datuk Mohd Hata Robani became the chairman of the audit committee on Feb 16, taking over from Abd Malik, who was redesignated as a committee member.

Affin Bank saw net profit fall 3% to RM487.77 million in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019, slightly below analysts’ expectations. It made up 94% of a Bloomberg analysts’ consensus estimate. Revenue grew a marginal 0.6% to RM1.93 billion.

What was positive about the results was the improvement in the bank’s gross impaired loan ratio to 3% as at end-December from 3.4% three months earlier. However, with the current challenges faced by the industry, analysts said it will be an uphill task to improve it further.

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