CIMB Bank upbeat on unit trust division

It’s optimistic on demand for long-term investment products

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Bank Bhd is optimistic on its unit trust business despite the uncertain and volatile outlook on equity markets.

Retail banking head Peter England said yesterday that the demand for long-term investment instruments like unit trusts would still be good.

“Our strategy is to encourage clients to think from the longer term perspective, such as 10 to 15 years, when purchasing investment products,” he told reporters after launching CIMB Clicks eInvest, an online portal for unit trust investment.

He said it was difficult to predict the market sentiment going forward but the outlook for the Malaysian market remained positive.

“The Malaysian market has no fundamental problems like in the US, Britain or Australia and we have no issue in the banking sector,” he said, adding that the lenders could still afford to lend.

He said the bank had not tightened up its lending activities. “We have always believed in lending money to people,” he added.

England said the bank had not changed the ratio between corporate and personal financing although it already anticipated some slowdown in the small and medium-scale enterprise and car loan segments.

“The markets we’ve been very active in have been residential mortgage, non-residential mortgage and credit cards. I think to a certain extent those things will continue (at the current level), while corporate business will come and go,” he said.

Asked on the possibility of a further interest rate cut by Bank Negara, he said: “The assumption is it will drop a bit more. Guess we’ll have to wait and see what Bank Negara does. It is likely that there will be another cut next year.”

On its newly-launched CIMB Clicks eInvest, England said the bank targeted 2,000 users next year for the portal, representing 10% of its existing 20,000 unit trust holders.

Investors using the portal can enjoy lower sales charges ranging from 0% to 2.5% of total sum invested compared to up to 6.5% for traditional transactions (via bank or agent).

CIMB : [Stock Watch] [News]

The Star-Anthony Lee Kian Seong