Arshad Ismail

EXIM Bank was established in 1995 and is wholly-owned by the Ministry of Finance. It is a development finance institution (DFI) "tasked with delivering effective financing and takaful (insurance) solutions for cross border ventures".

Arshad was appointed to lead EXIM Bank after completing his term of appointment at another DFI. He joined EXIM Bank at a time when the bank was experiencing negative portfolio growth, weak profitability and high impairment. In 2022, the bank recorded a loss before tax of RM66.48 million. In 2023, the bank returned to the black with a profit before tax of RM37 million (subject to final audit). The bank also recorded better operating revenue of RM244.94 million (unaudited) in 2023 relative to RM228.13 million in 2022.

Another significant challenge at EXIM was its loan portfolio contraction since 2017. In 2023, the bank finally grew its loan portfolio by 4.63576%; it recorded net loan of RM3.16 billion relative to RM3.02 billion in 2022.

Arshad chaired the Executive Committee and the Management Credit Committee.

Arshad was appointed to lead BPMB at a particularly difficult point in time. BPMB had gone through several management changes in the preceding 3 years and its public image was wanting. His priorities were to enhance governance, secure the trust of employees and other stakeholders and put BPMB back on the right business track.

The singular focus on putting BPMB back on the right track saw its profit before tax and zakat growing by 45.6% in 2019, thereby enabling BPMB to pay the highest dividend in its history. BPMB also took reporting to a new level with the publication of its first ever annual integrated report, in line with the Integrated Reporting Framework.

In financial year 2020, BPMB achieved a 2.54% growth in its financing portfolio. This growth was notable as it was the first growth since 2016. The gross impaired financing ratio also improved from 12.13% as at December 2019 to 10% (subject to finalisation) as at December 2021.

On top of executing BPMB's 3-year strategy, he also led the negotiations, on behalf of BPMB, with key stakeholders on the merger between BPMB and another financial institution. The negotiations culminated in the formal signing of the merger documentation in September 2021.

At BPMB, Arshad chaired the Executive Committee, the Group Credit Committee, the Management Risk Committee and the Asset and Liability Committee. He also served as a Director on the Boards of several subsidiaries that focused on leasing, hire-purchase and factoring facilities for Small and Medium Enterprises.

Maybank Islamic is a wholly owned subsidiary of Maybank, the largest financial institution in Malaysia. As head of Global Banking Business, Arshad was responsible for the following business lines: debt capital market, corporate banking and transaction banking.

Under his leadership, the Islamic corporate financing business grew from 44% of the Maybank domestic corporate financing portfolio (comprising conventional and Islamic facilities) in 2015, to 52% in 2016 and 57% in 2017. In addition, Maybank improved on its rankings on the Global Sukuk League table during his term: ranked #1 in 2017 (up from #5 in 2014, #4 in 2015 and #2 in 2016).

IILM is an international organization that was established by several central banks and a multilateral organisation to issue Shariah compliant short-term liquidity management instruments. Arshad was hired to lead the Origination & Structuring department, which was one of the two pillars of the organization.

At the time of joining, IILM was still in the establishment phase and its focus was to complete the infrastructure for the issuance platform. It had to deal with a variety of issues involving organizational design and stakeholder expectations, among others. Suffice to say that his stint at IILM was challenging but instrumental in shaping his thinking and approach to stakeholder management.

Al Hilal Bank is a full fledged Islamic bank wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. Arshad was hired to oversee the asset management department. As the the bank's investment banking scope expanded, he was given the opportunity to set up and run the corporate finance & advisory department, with an initial focus on growing the bank's Sukuk business.

Aayan Capital (now known as Sidra Capital) is an investment bank regulated by the Capital Market Authority of Saudi Arabia. Its principal activities are asset management and corporate finance advisory.

Arshad joined as part of the senior team that established the organization and secured the licence from the authorities. After Aayan Capital was successfully established, his first assignment was to structure and roll out a USD1 billion hospitality development fund. The structuring phase took approximately 6 months due to the complex regulatory and tax issues applicable to different categories of investors.

Taking into account the fact the region was still reeling from the global financial crisis and with the benefit of hindsight, it can now be stated that the timing for the launch of said fund was less than ideal. He considers this experience and the repercussions of not being able to successfully close the fund as being important career lessons that continue to serve him well until today.

This was a particularly prolific period in Arshad's career. The HSBC Amanah brand was well recognized and respected in the Islamic finance world whilst the HSBC global network was a fantastic platform to develop and grow the Sukuk business.

As the Head of Sukuk, he originated and successfully closed many Sukuk transactions in various jurisdictions across the Middle East and South East Asia. The origination component of his role also took Arshad to various countries in Europe and Asia to pitch Islamic finance and create awareness among HSBC's key clients who were not too familiar with Islamic finance.

HSBC Amanah cemented its leadership in the global Sukuk business by securing the Best Sukuk House 2007 award by Euromoney, the premier Sukuk award at that time.

Arshad joined CIMB Islamic as a pioneer member (3rd employee) and was directly involved in the establishment of a brand new department within the most established investment bank in Malaysia at that time. The initial business focus for the team was Sukuk transactions and he was the structuring expert within the relatively small team.

In collaboration with the debt capital markets team at CIMB, they were able to originate and structure deals that were considered groundbreaking from an Islamic finance perspective at that time.

Arshad joined the firm as a pupil-in-chambers, was retained as a legal assistant and made partner in January 1998. He had a varied legal practice but the bulk of his work was related to banking, Islamic banking, corporate and commercial advisory and documentation work.

Some of his significant achievements in legal practice include being retained as the principal Malaysian solicitor on the world's first two USD denominated Sukuk transactions: the Guthrie Sukuk in 2001 and the multi award winning Malaysia sovereign Sukuk in 2002.

Arshad also regularly spoke at Islamic finance conferences and conducted workshops on various Islamic finance topics.