Bank Islam Malaysia appoints two new Directors to Amana Bank

Amana Bank has announced that Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB) which pioneered Islamic banking in Malaysia and is a 20% strategic shareholder of Amana Bank has appointed Jeroen Thijs and Wahid Ali as new Directors on its Board. They replace Dato Sri Zukri Samat and Jaafer Abu who were on the bank’s Board since the inception.

Thijs is currently the Chief Risk Officer of BIMB and had joined that bank in 2009. He counts over 20 years of banking experience having worked in Rabobank in Singapore, ABN Amro Bank in Amsterdam, Singapore, Tokyo and London and has specialised in the area of risk management. Ali is presently the Chief Compliance Officer of BIMB and comes with over 30 years of banking experience having worked in Bank Bumiputra Malaysia, HSBC Malaysia and Affin Bank Malaysia. He was also Chief Internal Auditor of BIMB for five years. In making this change of its nominee Directors on Amana Bank’s Board, BIMB in a statement noted that Amana Bank is no longer in the inception stage where strategic decisions that may have implications for shareholders in particular related to corporate direction, business focus, risk appetite, capital expenditure planning, amongst others, have to be taken in an efficient and prompt manner.

During the said inception stage, as part of the Technical Agreement between ABL and Bank Islam, Jaffar Abu, BIMB’s Chief Operating Officer-Business support was tasked to take a leading role in facilitating the transfer of knowledge and capability to ABL.

“For this reason, we are of the view that our Chief Risk Officer and Chief Compliance Officer are the most suitable persons to replace Dato’ Sri Zukri Samat and Jaafar Abu in spearheading the future growth of Amana Bank. This minor change in Board representation on our part does not in any way alter our trust in and dedication to Amana Bank, our main partner in penetrating the fast-growing South Asian sub-continent. We sincerely hope that our unwavering support and steadfast commitment to the bank will help put Sri Lanka in a leadership position among other Islamic finance hub contenders in the sub-continent,” the statement added.

The Chairman of Amana Bank welcomed the two new Directors and stated that their specialised expertise would be of good value to the Board process. The Board also announced the appointment of Thijs to the bank’s Board Integrated Risk Management Committee and Ali to its Board Audit Committee.