No surprise

IT was hardly a big surprise when CIMB Group Holdings Bhd chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak announced this week that he would be stepping down from this position and all other positions within the banking group.

StarBizWeek had already predicted this some three months ago, following the fall of Nazir’s brother Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the head of government in May.

Like it or not, as his brother, Nazir’s name was one of the first bandied around as a possible casualty - as a result of the stunning defeat.

Nazir is a relatively well-respected banker here and abroad, but perhaps the blood ties were just too hard to ignore.

True, Nazir has been open enough about his criticism of 1MDB - one of the main reasons for Najib’s fall from grace - but some say he couldn’t have been this critical had it not been for his link to Najib.

Any other corporate who had done the same would have been put into cold storage, others say.

Still, one cannot ignore his contributions to CIMB, which from a small corporate finance firm has under his stewardship grown to become a regional lender.

Today, the lender is the second-largest bank by asset size in Malaysia and the fifth biggest in the South-East Asian region.

If Nazir’s social media posts are anything to go by, then one can conclude that he was well-liked and extremely respected as the leader of CIMB.

He was visionary and forward-looking, but perhaps what his successor will find the hardest to replicate is the expertise that he possesses.