Kuala Lumpur 14 th September 2007. Hong Leong Islamic Bank (HLIB) expects to continue growing at the same rate of between 20 per cent and 30 per cent that it has managed to record so far.

Its managing director Khalid Bhamia who is coming to his three months at the HLIB helm, is confident that the strong Malaysian economy will translate into more business for HLIB.

In a meeting with the media in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, he said the opportunities are aplenty in the Islamic finance sector "and we expect to grow in all areas".

He said if previously HLIB was stronger in the retail banking side, the buoyant growth of the economy and the good prospects in Islamic finance have allowed its other businesses, namely corporate, investment, treasury, takaful and unit trust, to grow as well.

Currently, on the banking side, 70 per cent of its income comes from retail banking and the rest wholesale activities, said Khalid.

"Leveraging on the 186 branches that Hong Leong Bank has, our distribution centres are well covered," he said, adding that the bank is actively growing its wholesale and wealth management businesses.

HLIB's assets currently stand at RM7 billion, RM2 billion more than when it was launched in July 19, 2005, making it the fifth largest Islamic bank in the country (excluding the bigger Islamic windows of lenders such as Maybank and Public Bank).

For the year ended June 2007, HLIB posted a higher pre-tax profit of RM81 million, 30 per cent better than in the year before.

Khalid said as part of the bank's aspiration to become more innovated in its product offerings, it recently hired a foreign specialist for that purpose.

"Our products are all GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council states) compliant," he said adding that having the products GCC-compliant ready could easily attract investments from the Middle East.

HLIB, however, has yet to go overseas as "there are too many business opportunities locally and the domestic market is really booming".

"Expanding overseas requires a lot of capital and we believe the prospects here are more exciting," he said citing that locally 80 per cent of all mortgages and auto financing are Islamic.