KAF Investment Bank has named a veteran of Malaysia’s central bank to lead its Islamic digital bank in the country.
Malaysia’s KAF Investment Bank has tapped Rafiza Ghazali as the CEO designate for its Islamic digital bank; the bank received its license earlier this month. She will initially join KAF as part of the project team pending the creation of the digital bank entity, the bank said in a press release Tuesday.
Previously, Rafiza was the finance director at Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Malaysia’s central bank in 2009-2010, according to her LinkedIn profile. She was also the chief financial officer at RHB Investment Bank from 2003 to 2009, and had a stint as the head of Islamic finance for Asia at Thomson Reuters, the profile said.
Start-Up Experience
Most recently, she has been the group CEO at Cradle Fund, a start-up ecosystem builder and the agency managing the Malaysian Startup Ecosystem Roadmap, the release said.
Thariq Usman Ahmad, deputy CEO at KAF, said: «We are pleased to have Rafiza to head our digital banking leadership team given her wealth of experience in both the private and public sectors. Her extensive foundation in banking as well as her involvement in innovation, particularly with the Malaysian fintech community, will be a huge asset in the building of KAF's digital banking partnership platform.»
Digital Banking Licenses
In early May, BNM announced it awarded three full digital bank licenses and two Islamic digital bank licenses. The other Islamic digital bank license went to a consortium of AEON Financial Service, AEON Credit Service and MoneyLion.
The three full digital banking licenses went to a consortium including Grab, Singtel and Malaysian investors; a consortium of Boost Holdings and RHB Bank; and a consortium led by Sea Ltd. and YTL Digital Capital.
BNM said at the time that the investment criteria for its picks included the soundness of the business plan, the strength of the underlying technology, ability to serve the unbanked and underbanked segments of Malaysia’s population and whether the award would serve the best interests of the country.
KAF Investment Bank is a Malaysian financial services group, offering both conventional and Shariah services in fixed income, money markets, investment banking, stock-broking, fund management and unit trusts.
