KFH slows down expansion

Islamic banking outfit Kuwait Finance House (KFH) will be slowing down the expansion of enw business in Malaysia owing to the more difficult operating environment at present, reports weekly The Edge.
Datuk Salman K Younis, managing director of KFH (Malaysia) Bhd and regional head for Asia Pacific, told the weekly in an email statement that factors such as higher cost funding have affected its profits and the 'viability' of some of its funding structures.
He told the weekly that as "Islamic banking is based on profit sharing, this requires due diligence, risk sharing and the standards of transparency and disclosure are definitely higher. Therefore, we have to be more stringent and prudent in our due diligence exercises."
Despite the slowdown in business, he report quoted Salman as saying that KFH will still be on the lookout for potential acquisitions, particularly small to medium companies in financial trouble.
"For the local ringgit market, the problem, if any, woudl be credit crunch as opposed to a liquidity crunch," he told the weekly.