VBI a crucial milestone in CIMB’s sustainability journey

CIMB Islamic Chief Executive Officer Rafe Haneef said, “Our commitment to Value-based Intermediation (VBI), together with CIMB Group’s commitment to the Principles for Responsible Banking, through its membership of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in 2018 marked an important milestone in our sustainability journey.

“VBI principles embraced by CIMB Islamic have also been incorporated into CIMB Group’s Sustainability pillar in its next mid-term strategy, through which CIMB seeks to advance not just customers, but also societies.

“As an ASEAN MNC in the financial industry, we have a huge responsibility to create value not just economically, but also environmentally and socially.

“The foundational benchmarking research and engagement efforts by INCEIF on our behalf positively impacted and informed our understanding of sustainable banking in Malaysia and internationally; our understanding of the larger stakeholder engagement needed across industries, both nationally and internationally; and our sustainable financing policy which guides financing decisions in light of environmental and social risks,” added Rafe.

INCEIF President and chief executive officer Prof Datuk Dr Azmi Omar said: “At INCEIF, we believe that it is our duty to play a role in building a sustainable community.

Islamic finance should take the lead in promoting green finance where responsible and impact financing are being embraced in pursuit of values beyond financial motivation.

“As a proponent of Islamic Finance, INCEIF believes its principles and practices can create meaningful impact through an alternative financing framework, specifically Islamic social finance.

“INCEIF has embarked on a strategy to encourage policy change and to directly impact social well-being by utilising Islamic finance instruments.

“A dedicated Islamic Social Finance unit has been established at INCEIF with the objective of providing Islamic financial modelling techniques to deal with social challenges through the application of zakat, sadaqah, waqf and hybrid solutions,” added Azmi.