Malaysian Rating Corporation Berhad (MARC) received the Best Islamic Rating Agency Award at the eighth Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) on September 16, 2019. This annual global awards honours the contribution of institutions and individuals to the development of Islamic banking and finance. The ninth GIFA was held in Cape Town, South Africa and attended by heads of states and governments as well as notable members of the Islamic finance industry.
Speaking after the awards, MARC’s Chief Rating Officer Rajan Paramesran expressed his gratitude at MARC winning the Best Islamic Rating Agency Award for the fifth time. “The win highlights MARC’s continuous commitment to innovation within the Islamic finance sphere. The award also recognises MARC’s efforts to support the development of Islamic finance in Malaysia by conducting training programmes and organising Islamic finance knowledge-sharing forums,” he further added.
MARC has been at the forefront of the development and growth of the domestic sukuk market, which remains an important source of financing for domestic infrastructure development, project financing, corporates and bank capital. Noteworthy sukuk programmes rated by MARC last year include a RM1.58 billion Islamic Medium-Term Notes Sukuk Wakalah to fund the development of government office buildings and a RM245 million Green SRI Sukuk for the development of a solar photovoltaic plant and more recently, a RM1.0 billion Sukuk Wakalah to fund the development of water assets.
Islamic finance continues to thrive despite global headwinds, with total global sukuk issuance increasing to RM298 billion as at end-June 2019 from RM200.0 billion for the same period last year. Domestically, outstanding Malaysian sukuk increased 12.2% to RM918.4 billion during the same period. “To this end, MARC looks forward to deepening and broadening our rating role in sukuk rating coverage in the Islamic capital markets,” concluded Rajan.
Contacts:
Beatrice Thio, +603-2717 2946 / beatrice@marc.com.my;
Lalitha Sivanesan, +603-2717 2953 / lalitha@marc.com.my;
Nurfarain Mohd Dom, +603-2717 2925 / farah@marc.com.my
