Mahbub Rahman has been appointed head of commercial banking at HSBC Malaysia.
Rahman will be responsible for the commercial banking, corporate banking, global trade and receivables finance, and payments and cash management businesses.
His appointment was effective on August 1 and he is based in Kuala Lumpur. He replaces Andy Grisdale. An announcement will be made on Tuesday as to Grisdale's next move within HSBC, a bank spokesperson told FinanceAsia.
Rahman has more than 16 years experience in corporate banking and was most recently head of commercial banking in Bangladesh, a role he held since 2006.
He will report regionally to Noel Quinn, group general manager and regional head of commercial banking, Asia-Pacific, and in Malaysia to Mukhtar Hussain, chief executive of HSBC Malaysia.
“Malaysia is one of Asia’s most dynamic economies and Mahbub’s experience will complement our leadership position in Asia,” Quinn said in a statement.
Malaysia is one of the best performing economies in the Asean region, with second-quarter GDP increasing faster than expected, the government announced this month.
The economy grew 6.4% compared to analysts’ expectations of 5.8% on the back of healthy private domestic demand and strong export growth.
RHB Research House said this month that Malaysia’s banking system loans would maintain 9%-10% growth this year, compared with 10.6% growth in 2013.
The bullish projections come in spite of lending curbs to households, as well as restrictions on the property market, the research group said.
“Malaysia continues to be a growth story for HSBC and we are committed to building strong and sustainable businesses that focus on the needs of our customers,” Hussain said in a statement.
Malaysia’s banking industry has attracted a lot of attention recently following the planned merger between CIMB, RHB Capital and Malaysia Building Society.
The deal would create Malaysia’s biggest bank, with combined assets of $183 billion; and give it a dominant position in terms of domestic loans and deposits.
For example, AmResearch estimated CIMB’s market share of domestic loans would rise to 25.5% from 13.8%, compared to Maybank’s 17.9%. CIMB’s share of deposits would jump to 23.9% from 12.7% currently, ahead of Maybank’s 16.8%.
In investment banking, Nomura in July named Kit Weng Yip as its head of IB for Malaysia, saying the country was key for the bank.
