Maybank welcomes partnership with Turkish bank

Maybank limits its collaboration with Bank Asya on trading and products but not in buying stakes.

Maybank group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said on 3 November that the bank is "open to collaboration in terms of trade finance and products. Collaboration does not have to be in the form of equity."

"It is not our intention in this moment to look at equity investment in Turkey," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur as stated in a report in Bernama.

On 2 November, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said that Turkey's leading bank, Bank Asya, was keen to tap the expertise of Maybank and CIMB Bank Bhd to jointly establish Islamic banking operations in Turkey.

He said that Bank Asya representatives had expressed the bank's interest at a business meeting with the Finance Ministry during the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Conference in Istanbul recently.

Abdul Wahid said the group's focus still remained on Southeast Asia and to some extent South Asia.