BIMB Integrated Annual Report 2019

LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS Islamic Banking We continue to reflect our adherence to Islamic finance tenets that seek growth and development while contributing to societal elevation, which is in line with the Value-Based Intermediation (“ VBI ”) concept advocated by Bank Negara Malaysia (“ BNM ”). We made significant progress on our social finance initiatives through developing an Islamic crowdfunding platform, Sadaqa House . Sadaqa House leverages on financial technology application that allows the public to make online donations and contribute to various social causes of their choosing. Providing our banking customers with excellence in service underscores all that we do to create better value. For the year in review, we looked to strengthen and grow our delivery channels which included advancing our digital and electronics payment channels. As guided by our priority on Inclusive Growth, we place focus on helping the community, especially the underserved and underprivileged, to thrive together with us. The Bank’s business strategy places emphasis on advancing financial inclusion where doing well for the business means empowering the community to do well for themselves. Part of Bank Islam’s wide-spread financial inclusivity initiatives include structuring financing facilities that aim to encourage more women to capitalise on opportunities for entrepreneurship. Takaful In executing our business strategy, we aim to strengthen our role and impact as the Takaful operator by focusing on practices and conduct that generate positive impact and value. On this premise, we embedded tenets of sustainability within our implementation approach that allows Takaful Malaysia to create long-term value for our shareholders as well as benefit for the economy, community and environment. In 2019, Takaful Malaysia continued to strengthen its business growth and emphasis on customers through the expansion of its digital strategy. Takaful Malaysia’s sterling performance in 2019 was also duly attributable to the active execution of our inclusive business strategy and diversified distribution capabilities to reach out to different segments of customers, on top of our digital transformation. Our digital strategy will be the key driver for our innovation, competitive advantage, and growth. The aim is to build a full-digital ecosystem with innovative products and services, and expand our focus beyond credit-related business in order to reach out to the wide retail customer base of major partner banks. This remains a huge untapped market for us in providing Takaful products to address the protection gap in Malaysia’s population. The selling of retail Takaful products via mobile devices is now supported by a face-to-face digital-assist point-of-sales system equipped with a smart underwriting engine to facilitate a straight-sales processing for product advice, enrolment, payment, and certificate issuance in meeting the ever-rising consumer expectations. With a growing online distribution presence, Takaful Malaysia continued embarking into digital solutions to offer a differentiated experience of customised services for corporate clients to strengthen its market reach in the Employee Benefits (“EB”) segment, and strengthen the branding as a professional EB player to provide our corporate clients with healthy lifestyle and wellness programmes as a value-added benefit to build a healthy and productive workforce. Securities In 2019, BIMB Securities continued with its digital improvement journey which included upgrading and enhancing its mobile application and online trading platform, www.BISonline.com.my . Through the enhancements made towards being equipped with robotic and algorithmic trading features, clients can have a faster and more efficient trading experience. The upgraded platform gives investors access to Shariah-compliant stocks globally from selected markets of USA, Singapore and Hong Kong. BHB has led the way in demonstrating how an Islamic financial institution can play a successful role in a modern economy. Today, we have grown from strength to strength, serving millions of customers across the nation while being at the forefront of contributing to the growth of Malaysia’s leading position as a vibrant International Islamic Financial Centre. “ ” +15.4 % Net profit attributable to shareholders RM786.9 million Integrated Annual Report 2019 Group Overview Sustaining The Group Management Discussion & Analysis Group Governance 52