Asia an 'oasis of growth'
Asia is an "oasis of growth" for the world today and is poised to drive global economic expansion, said CIMB Holdings group chief executive Nazir Razak.
He said prospects for Asia remained solid on the backdrop of a pending financial integration of the region, which could see growth in its bond markets in the region.
“Asia has the highest savings rate and the highest demand for capital but Asia, it seems, is not so good in investing in itself. It tends to route a lot of savings to the West.
“Then it comes back and there is a lot of unnecessary friction costs. We need to fix this and when we fix it, there is a prospect for very high growth for the financial markets here in Asia as a whole,” Nazir added.
He was speaking at a forum to introduce Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Nazir said CIMB aimed to complete its investment banking platform in the region by securing investment banking licences in Mumbai, Taipei and Seoul in the next two to three months.
“It is the right time now to expand our investment banking business. Today, we are present in New York, Hong Kong and Australia. Next, we should get Seoul, Taipei and Mumbai. Then, we will be complete,” he said.
He said that after a new business was bought, it took time to wrap up for people to get to know each other and to work together.
“We are looking forward to the challenge to integrate fully the Asia-Pacific platform that we have in investment banking to synergise it across the region,” Nazir added.
Meanwhile, CIMB Wealth Advisers is targeting the total size of assets under its management to grow to more than 7 billion ringgit (Bt70 billion) by the end of next year from 6.1 billion ringgit now.
