M'sia to remain global leader in Islamic banking dev't

MALAYSIA will continue to be the global leader in developing and promoting Islamic banking systems, according to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

Its senior partner in Southeast Asia, Markus Bohme said Malaysia will face competition from member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

He said there will be an automatic connection with the GCC countries and at the same time competition, but Malaysia is probably set for that in Asia.

"Many people are thinking about Malaysia as a product of Islamic investment banking, automatically the activity will be related to the Gulf region. It probably goes beyond the Islamic...Malaysia has relatively strong banks and very international banks which are Maybank and CIMB," he said during an Investment Banking Outlook briefing yesterday.

Bohme said the global investment banking revenues were set to increase this year but more restructuring and consolidation schemes were expected. He said global investment banking revenues were expected to grow by 10 per cent this year but might post a low double-digit industry return-on-equity (ROE).Bernama