KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd and CIMB Investment Bank Bhd clinched three major awards at the 13th annual Alpha Southeast Asia Best Islamic Finance Awards 2021.

       In a statement on Monday, CIMB said the awards were for best Islamic finance bank, best global Islamic finance sukuk house and best Islamic finance sukuk house in Malaysia.

       This is the third consecutive year CIMB has been designated as best Islamic finance sukuk House in Malaysia.

       Recently, CIMB was also named as Global Finance’s Best Sukuk Bank globally at the world’s best Islamic financial institutions 2021 awards.

       CIMB Islamic CEO Ahmad Shahriman Mohd Shariff said: “These awards are a tribute to the support of CIMB’s customers, without whom we would not be the established Islamic banking franchise we are today.”

       He said CIMB Islamic was aligned with the principles of value-based intermediation and it continues to support the progress of individuals, businesses and society at large in a responsible and sustainable manner.

       “Notably we have strived to assist the development of the B40 and micro entrepreneur communities, and continue to leverage innovation in the digital space. We are also continuously progressing in adopting best practices in the Islamic banking industry, in serving our wide profile of customers, including individuals, SMEs and corporates.”

       CIMB Investment Bank CEO Jefferi Hashim said, “Our relationships and commitment to serve CIMB’s clients with the best targeted solutions remain our top priority and we would like to thank them as our partners in these awards.”

       Jefferi said these accolades recognise CIMB’s continued market leadership and excellence in the sukuk markets both nationally and globally.

       “The awards are testament to the continued trust and confidence in our fundraising and Islamic finance capabilities across a wide spectrum of customers, industry sectors and geographies.”

       CIMB Islamic has been endeavouring to help empower underserved communities and small businesses through micro-entrepreneurship development programmes, as well as providing resources for grooming businesses to become halal-ready and enhancing strategy in their sustainability journey through CIMB HalalBizReady and CIMB GreenBizReady respectively.

       CIMB ranked is No.1 on Bloomberg’s Malaysian Ringgit Islamic Sukuk and Global Sukuk league tables, by aggregate volume since 2007.

       To date, CIMB is also the largest sukuk arranger in Malaysia and the largest global sukuk arranger in the world.

       Globally, CIMB dominated the sukuk landscape and successfully raised close to US$5bil in aggregate across three outstanding sovereign sukuk transactions, in the first six months of 2021 alone.

       CIMB successfully lead-managed the Government of Malaysia’s dual tranche US$1.3bil Sukuk Wakala offering, where the 10-year US$800mil sustainability tranche was the world’s first US$ sustainability sukuk offered by a sovereign.

       CIMB also launched and priced the Government of Indonesia’s US$3bil global sukuk offering, including a US$750mil green sukuk tranche - the first-ever 30-year and longest-tenured green sukuk issuance globally.

       The UK Government’s 500mil pound sterling trust certificates - its second sukuk issuance - saw CIMB being the only Asian bank to obtain a repeat mandate from the Government of the United Kingdom.

       The 500mil pound sterling sukuk offering was more than double the size of the sovereign’s first issuance in 2014, accelerating the adoption of Islamic finance outside the Islamic world.