CIMB receives triple recognition at Alpha Southeast Asia’s Best Islamic Finance Awards 2021

5 July 2021

Awarded as Best Islamic Finance Bank, Best Global Islamic Finance Sukuk House and Best Islamic Finance Sukuk House in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur: CIMB Islamic Bank Berhad and CIMB Investment Bank Berhad (collectively “CIMB”) have been recognised with three major awards at the 13^th Annual Alpha Southeast Asia Best Islamic Finance Awards 2021 for Best Islamic Finance Bank, Best Global Islamic Finance Sukuk House and Best Islamic Finance Sukuk House in Malaysia.

This is the third consecutive year CIMB has been designated as Best Islamic Finance Sukuk House in Malaysia. Recently, CIMB was also named as Global Finance’s Best Sukuk Bank globally at the World’s Best Islamic Financial Institutions 2021 awards.  

Ahmad Shahriman Mohd Shariff, Chief Executive Officer, CIMB Islamic said, “These awards are a tribute to the support of CIMB’s customers, without whom we would not be the established Islamic banking franchise we are today. Aligned with the principles of value-based intermediation, we continue to support the progress of individuals, businesses and society at large in a responsible and sustainable manner. Notably we have strived to assist the development of the B40 and micro entrepreneur communities, and continue to leverage innovation in the digital space. We are also continuously progressing in adopting best practices in the Islamic banking industry, in serving our wide profile of customers, including individuals, SMEs and corporates.”

Jefferi Hashim, Chief Executive Officer, CIMB Investment Bank said, “Our relationships and commitment to serve CIMB’s clients with the best targeted solutions remain our top priority and we would like to thank them as our partners in these awards. These accolades recognise CIMB’s continued market leadership and excellence in the sukuk markets both nationally and globally. The awards are testament to the continued trust and confidence in our fundraising and Islamic finance capabilities across a wide spectrum of customers, industry sectors and geographies.”

CIMB Islamic has continued to bring operational enhancements and innovation across its range of products and services including consumer banking, commercial banking, transaction banking, Islamic treasury and Islamic capital markets. Through our aim of pursuing improved customer journeys and enhanced customer experience, customers stand to benefit from reduction in turnaround time, reduced documentation complexity, improved product features and reduced financial risk.

Aligning with the social impact aspects of value-based intermediation, CIMB Islamic has been endeavouring to help empower underserved communities and small businesses through micro-entrepreneurship development programmes, as well as providing resources for grooming businesses to become halal-ready and enhancing strategy in their sustainability journey through CIMB HalalBizReady and CIMB GreenBizReady respectively.  

CIMB ranked No.1 on Bloomberg’s Malaysian Ringgit Islamic Sukuk and Global Sukuk league tables, by aggregate volume since 2007. To date, CIMB is also the largest sukuk arranger in Malaysia and the largest global sukuk arranger in the world.

Globally, CIMB dominated the sukuk landscape and successfully raised close to USD5.0 billion in aggregate across three outstanding sovereign sukuk transactions, in the first six months of 2021 alone. CIMB successfully lead-managed the Government of Malaysia’s dual tranche USD1.3 billion Sukuk Wakala offering, where the 10-year USD800.0 million sustainability tranche was the world’s first USD sustainability sukuk offered by a sovereign. CIMB also launched and priced the Government of Indonesia’s USD3.0 billion global sukuk offering, including a USD750.0 million green sukuk tranche - the first-ever 30-year and longest-tenured green sukuk issuance globally. The UK Government’s GBP500.0 million Trust Certificates - its second sukuk issuance - saw CIMB being the only Asian bank to obtain a repeat mandate from the Government of the United Kingdom. The GBP500.0 million sukuk offering was more than double the size of the sovereign’s first issuance in 2014, accelerating the adoption of Islamic finance outside the Islamic world.