Elaf Bank was presented with the license during a formal ceremony held at Bank Negara Malaysia on Wednesday in the presence of key officials and representatives from both sides.
Elaf Bank plans to start its branch office operations in Kuala Lumpur immediately now that it has fulfilled the formalities required for obtaining the license.
Jamil El Jaroudi, CEO of Elaf Bank, highlighted the importance of opening a branch office in Malaysia, which falls in line with the bank’s long-term business strategy.
He said: “Elaf Bank is developing its business through two hubs covering the GCC and MENA region and the South East Asia region, as a two-way business corridor. Being a wholesale Islamic bank headquartered in the capital of Islamic finance in the Middle East (Bahrain), the logical next step would be to open our first international branch office in the capital of Islamic finance in South East Asia (Malaysia). This will help us operate more efficiently and closely to meet the needs of our cross-regional clients, and be able to execute deals that will contribute to the sustainable growth of the Islamic finance industry in both strategic markets,” he added.
“We firmly believe the bank is poised to not only widen its scope and reach through the opening of the branch office in Malaysia, but also to consolidate its excellent client relations and business activities as a result of this step, which will no doubt generate benefits for both regions and create value for the Bank,” Jaroudi said.
Elaf Bank is a closed shareholding company incorporated in Bahrain.
The bank encompasses the full spectrum of wholesale Islamic banking with an additional differentiating dimension geared toward developing the sukuk secondary market to act as a market maker.
Elaf Bank currently provides a wide range of financial services to clients involving investment banking including fund-raising advisory, mergers and acquisitions and asset management and treasury and capital markets such as liquidity management, foreign exchange, investment, structured products and derivatives.
