Maybank S’pore to unveil first Islamic term deposit

Friday July 17, 2009

Maybank S’pore to unveil first Islamic term deposit


SINGAPORE: Maybank Singapore will launch the first Islamic term deposit, Term Deposit-i, targeted at retail clients today.

This will make it the first bank in the island republic to offer the Islamic banking product to that market segment.

As the first mover in the market, Term Deposit-i would pay profits upfront, bucking the local trend of Islamic term deposits for high net-worth customers, the bank said in a statement.

A similar product, Profit Now Account-i, was launched by Maybank Islamic Bhd in Malaysia last May and it was well-received with more than RM1.3bil total deposits to date.

The bank said Islamic banking products were sought after by local customers scouting for alternative investment avenues with the current change in investment landscape.

The bank is offering, for a limited period, promotional rates of 0.6%, 1% and 1.4% for a tenure of three, six and 12 months respectively.

The minimum placement is S$10,000 for a 12-month tenure or a minimum of S$25,000 for three- and six-month tenures.

The bank said Term Deposit-i was based on the commodity murabahah principle, which was on a cost-plus-profit sale concept.

Under this concept, a specific syariah-compliant commodity will be identified and used as the underlying asset for the sale and purchase transaction between the customer and the bank.

The bank said since the introduction of the Islamic deposit products in 2005, it had seen an average year-on-year increase of over 40% in Islamic deposits.

This increase aligned with the global expected growth of over 40% to US$1 trillion by 2012, Maybank said.

Maybank Singapore Islamic banking head Mohd Ismail Hussein said the current market presented an opportune time to take on a back-to-basic approach.

“Consumers are on the lookout for an alternative to conventional products and this term deposit, being syariah-compliant, may well match their needs,” he said in the statement.

Ismail said Islamic banking was a fairly new concept in Singapore but was gaining momentum, including among the bank’s non-Muslim Islamic banking customers.

“With Maybank being the market leader in Islamic banking in Malaysia, the operations in Singapore is in good stead to ‘break the ice’ between Islamic banking and the local retail market,” he said. — Bernama






SINGAPORE: Maybank Singapore will launch the first Islamic term deposit, Term Deposit-i, targeted at retail clients today.

This will make it the first bank in the island republic to offer the Islamic banking product to that market segment.

As the first mover in the market, Term Deposit-i would pay profits upfront, bucking the local trend of Islamic term deposits for high net-worth customers, the bank said in a statement.

A similar product, Profit Now Account-i, was launched by Maybank Islamic Bhd in Malaysia last May and it was well-received with more than RM1.3bil total deposits to date.

The bank said Islamic banking products were sought after by local customers scouting for alternative investment avenues with the current change in investment landscape.

The bank is offering, for a limited period, promotional rates of 0.6%, 1% and 1.4% for a tenure of three, six and 12 months respectively.

The minimum placement is S$10,000 for a 12-month tenure or a minimum of S$25,000 for three- and six-month tenures.

The bank said Term Deposit-i was based on the commodity murabahah principle, which was on a cost-plus-profit sale concept.

Under this concept, a specific syariah-compliant commodity will be identified and used as the underlying asset for the sale and purchase transaction between the customer and the bank.

The bank said since the introduction of the Islamic deposit products in 2005, it had seen an average year-on-year increase of over 40% in Islamic deposits.

This increase aligned with the global expected growth of over 40% to US$1 trillion by 2012, Maybank said.

Maybank Singapore Islamic banking head Mohd Ismail Hussein said the current market presented an opportune time to take on a back-to-basic approach.

“Consumers are on the lookout for an alternative to conventional products and this term deposit, being syariah-compliant, may well match their needs,” he said in the statement.

Ismail said Islamic banking was a fairly new concept in Singapore but was gaining momentum, including among the bank’s non-Muslim Islamic banking customers.

“With Maybank being the market leader in Islamic banking in Malaysia, the operations in Singapore is in good stead to ‘break the ice’ between Islamic banking and the local retail market,” he said. — Bernama