Maybank Islamic launches financing facility

Maybank Islamic has launched its new Islamic term financing facility specifically designed for corporate and business customers.
The Musharakah Mutanaqisah Term Financing-i (MMTF-i) is a Shariah-compliant financing facility for asset acquisitions and refinancing landed properties, plant and machinery, vessels as well as commercial vehicles.
The contract for MMTF-i is based on the Islamic principle of musharakah mutanaqisah or the diminishing partnership concept. Customers using this facility will enter into a musharakah mutanaqisah co-ownership agreement with Maybank Islamic to jointly acquire and co-own the asset.
The bank will lease its share of the asset to the customer and the customer, as an owner-tenant, will make payments which consist of a monthly rental payment and the acquisition payment intended to gradually acquire the bank's share of the jointly-owned asset.
The ownership of the property will progressively move towards the customer and the financing ends when the customer owns 100% of the property. Maybank Islamic acting CEO Ibrahim Hassain (in pix above, receiving a KLIFF award from Minister of Finance II Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop) said the new facility complements the bank's existing Term Financing-i, and it functions as an alternative for customers to manage their asset acquisitions and refinancing.
"The musharakah mutanaqisah concept is internationally accepted and is available to both local and foreign customers.
"The introduction of this latest facility given today's challenging business environment is our commitment to offer value services to customers and to assist in sustaining the growth momentum for business," he said in a statement yesterday.
MMTF-i is offered at a very competitive financing rate and is available under fixed and floating rates. Customers are also eligible for a 20% remission from stamp duty.
"Given these benefits, MMTF-i therefore offers significant advantages to our business customers. We are targeting for MMTF-I to contribute to our 10% to 15% growth target within Maybank Islamic's overall financing portfolio for the next financial year.
"To date, Maybank Islamic has more than RM8.2 billion in outstanding financing to the business sector," added Ibrahim. MMTF-i is Maybank Islamic's seventh latest mainstream banking product introduced since it commenced operations on Jan 1, 2008.
Ibrahim said Maybank Islamic will continue to bring a comprehensive range of ringgit and foreign denominated banking products to meet the ever growing needs of Malaysia's individual and business customers. (The Malaysian Reserve, Dec 17, 2008, p9. The Malaysian Reserve is a daily business/finance newspaper published out of Kuala Lumpur, with a sectoral page on Islamic finance on Mondays edited by Habhajan Singh)