Noripah Kamso was born in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia into a middle/rural-class neighbourhood. The youngest of seven siblings, she was raised by her father who was a military-cum-police personnel.
She has four children; two of her daughters are currently working, the eldest as a doctor and the second as an investment banker. The third child is in the Australian National University, Canberra with the youngest still in Secondary School.
Honours Bestowed
“Datuk” is a title awarded by Sultans/State Governors in Malaysia to personalities who have contributed to nation-building through both the corporate/professional world and also through social contributions/causes. She was awarded her Datukship by the State of Malacca.
Education Background
Masters in Business Administration, 1980, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, USA
Bachelor of Business Administration, 1979, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois, USA
Brief Career Profile
Prior to her appointment as Chief Executive Officer of CIMB-Principal Islamic Asset Management, Datuk Nori-pah was the CEO of both CIMB Principal Asset Management Berhad and CIMB Principal Islamic Asset Management. She eventually relinquished her role in the conventional space and now focuses entirely on the global Islamic space.
Prior to this, she was Executive Director of CIMB Futures Sdn Bhd from October 1996 to September 2004. She served as Deputy General Manager, General Manager, and then Director of Corporate Banking at Commerce International Merchant Bankers Berhad (CIMB) from January 1993 to August 2004.
From 1983 until 1993, Noripah rose through the ranks of Corporate Banking at Bank of Commerce (M) Berhad, starting off as a senior corporate banker and ending her service at the bank as Vice President of Corporate Banking.
Articles/Books
She authored a book titled “Credit Decision Making: The Qualitative Credit Approach” which was used by Institut Bank Bank Malaysia (“IBBM”) as a module for its Certified Credit Professional (“CCP”) exam. She writes articles for Euromoney, The Global Islamic Finance Report, Institutional Investors, Asia Asset Magazine, Malaysian Business, Asia Investors Magazine, Islamic Business and Finance Magazine, Middle East Insurance Review and others.
Corporate Activities
She has served on the Board of Directors for:
- Malaysian Derivatives Clearing House, Malaysia.
- CIMB Futures Sdn. Bhd, Malaysia.
- CIMB Nominees Sdn. Bhd, Malaysia.
- Flow more Engineering Sdn. Bhd, Malaysia.
She has also served on Bursa Malaysia’s Derivatives Consultative Committee, Malaysian Stock Exchange.
Voluntary Organizations
- Treasurer for the Association of Bukit
Bintang Malay Women (Persatuan Wanita Melayu Bukit Bintang), Malaysia
- Secretary for the Alumni Association of Northern Illinois University
- Chairman of the women wing of UMNO Bukit Bintang Division, Malaysia.
Professional and Association Membership
President of the Malaysian Futures Brokers Association (“MFBA”) in 2003. Prior to that she served for four years as Vice President of the Association. She has been active in developing the domestic derivatives landscape for the past 6 years.
Products
- Institutional mandates: Islamic Global Equity, Islamic Asia Pacific ex-Japan, Equity, Global Sukuk and Regional (Ringgit) Sukuk mandates.
- Retail products: Islamic retail unit trust funds ranging from Malaysian domestic to Asia capabilities
The importance of producing IT banking systems that accommodates the peculiarities of Islamic finance cannot be understated. The i MAL system created by Path Solutions is a welcome solution that is proving to be useful, efficient and economical. In this exclusive interview with CEO and Group Chairman, Mohammed Kateeb, we delve further into the man, the vision and the product.
What is the importance of technology in Islamic banking and finance?
Is it any different from conventional banking?
In our current times, technology has become crucial for any industry to drive operational efficiency and enhance customer service. The Islamic financial industry is no different from its conventional counterpart. Importance has been magnified by the financial crisis where declines in the profitability of Islamic financial institutions and the tremendous increase of regulations have made IT solutions critical for this industry to continue its growth. The second point here is that Islamic financial institutions are in direct competition with conventional banks and they have to acquire the same if not better technology solutions than their counterparts in order to effectively compete. I say better because in addition to conventional banks basic operations that have Shari’a-compliant equivalents, there is the complexity of Shari’a-compliant products structures, profit calculations, etc.
Customers are becoming very demanding of their banks regardless of whether they are conventional or Islamic. The world is changing and customer experience is continuously being enhanced using technology. New delivery channels are putting customers in control through technology and banks have to provide the 24/7 access that customers need and the know-how that they demand.
What are your plans for Path Solutions for the next 12 months?
Path Solutions is completely focused on the Islamic financial industry. Based on our extensive research we believe this industry will continue to grow further over the next five years and the number of financial institutions will reach 1000. Path Solutions is in a great position to capitalize on this. In the next 12 months, we are focusing on perfecting execution and building more agility into our business. We will continue to expand our product line and geography coverage. We want to solidify our position as the undisputed IT solution leader in Islamic finance.
You are perhaps the only global technology firm that exclusively specialises in Islamic banking & finance. When did you realise that Islamic banking & finance was the niche you would like to tap into?
We started our company in 1992 and during the 90s we built Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) class solutions, did IT consulting and provided professional services to many financial and non-financial companies. Some of these companies were Islamic financial institutions. It was in the late 1990s that we realized the importance of this segment and the tremendous growth expected. We decided to focus completely on this segment and drop everything else. It was a great decision. We decided to build a set of Shari’a- compliant fully integrated IT solutions that are designed to cater for all Islamic products, meet the increasing demand of this segment and be flexible enough to allow each bank to customize its own products based on its Shari’a board’s requirements. In addition to that, the system should provide state-of-the-art technology and should be comprehensive to cover all business needs. Many of our customers run their complete banking operations using our system with no need for any additional third-party products. In addition to a large portfolio of Islamic banking software solutions, we also offer other services, such as consulting, professional services, training and support.
What are the IT-related challenges faced by the Islamic financial services industry?
One of the main challenges facing this industry is the masking of many conventional IT systems and positioning them to be Shari’a-compliant. These systems do not comply with the Shari’a financial regulatory requirements of the respective country. They are limited in flexibility and ease of use and don’t allow the building of customized Islamic financial products that can be bought to market in a reasonable time. This industry still lacks many standards, as a single rigid solution will not meet Islamic institutions’ requirements. The solution should be designed to allow tremendous customization capabilities because this is critical for the success of the Islamic financial institution’s operations.
Ambition or talent: which matters more to success? In the case of Path Solutions, what has contributed most to the success of your business?
Hard work! Ambition and talent are important and required for success, but hard work is what brings it all together. We had the ambition to be the leader for the Islamic finance IT solutions segment; we brought in talented people to execute; but tremendous hard work on all stages of building these solutions is what brought us to where we are today. I subscribe to the theory that success is 95% hard work.
What is the size of the Islamic financial technology market? What are the driving factors in its further development and growth?
As per the Gartner February 2011 Report, the Islamic banking system market – that is, the market of the technologies that enable these financial products – is predicted to be a $1.2 billion market in 2011 and to grow at a 10.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) until 2014, while the external IT spending component will have a higher CAGR, at 18.1%. Thus, the total market size will grow from $1.2 billion in 2011 to about $1.6 billion in 2014. That is phenomenal growth largely driven by some key market trends and the increasing demand for such banking systems.
In addition there is tremendous interest from conventional banks to offer Shari’a-compliant financial services in the form of Islamic windows which has given a boost to this industry. Of course the evolvement of a more robust regulatory framework has also pushed these financial institutions to deploy better IT systems and drive a huge replacement initiative of their existing systems to systems that can help them achieve their objectives.
Customers’ requirements are also a key factor for technology growth. Institutions are asking for more sophisticated peripheral systems, for example business intelligence, risk management, regulatory reporting and delivery channels: anything that helps them run more efficiently, control their business better and gives them insight into their business. IT solutions need to play as a differentiator; we have to keep up with the most sophisticated banking technologies, hence the need to continue to invest in R&D.
What is the cultural difference between leading the Middle Eastern operations of a giant like Microsoft and working at Path Solutions?
When I was at Microsoft, the company had an interesting model in running its operations based on geographies, which means the head of geography owns the complete Microsoft business in that geographic location and would be responsible for all decisions. In my last position at Microsoft, I was responsible for 22 countries. This culture has created the spirit of entrepreneurship in many leaders who came out of Microsoft. Although it was a huge company, my experience at Microsoft in the USA and the Middle East has prepared me to run a company such as Path Solutions especially as they both develop great software. Of course Microsoft is a much larger company than Path Solutions and the support infrastructure in it for an executive is much stronger. The brand is also a strong brand and the company is a strategic partner to almost every business in the world. This of course opens many doors but at the same time, makes the job at Path Solutions more challenging and much harder. As a medium size company we have to work very hard to prove ourselves to a bank in London or Malaysia. It’s not only that we have to be much better than the multinationals we are competing with, but we also need to have a huge differentiator to even be considered. Internally, I have tried to bring my value system, my work ethic and a personal vision of a corporate culture to Path Solutions and recreate the company to care about all the right things. I believe we have been building a great culture inside Path that is as good as any of the large multinationals. The size of the company of course allows me personally to know and influence directly most of the employees at Path Solutions.
How difficult is it to manage a company with global operations, headquartered in Kuwait, a Research & Development Centre in Lebanon, and clients spread all over the world?
I believe technology has changed all the rules regarding geographic distribution. Almost all multinational companies have their operations offices spread across the globe and if we consider the outsourcing and offshoring and the makeup of a virtual company it gets much more complicated. Technology enables all of us to achieve integration. We believe in being close to our customers and we believe in having a direct presence in their countries. We also believe in having R&D offices where affordable talent is. We have an R&D office in Beirut, one in Egypt and the third one is of course in our headquarters in Kuwait. The office in Kuwait allows us to mix many nationalities and bring talent from India, other Middle Eastern countries and even Europe and the USA. There are advantages in having a centralized model but we believe the advantages we are getting from the distribution model outweigh the disadvantages and we always have the technology to make all this work!
If someone says that technology is technology, nothing is Islamic about it. What would you say?
We, of course, disagree on this, and we have built a very successful company because we disagree. We also have over 75 Islamic financial institutions worldwide that agree with our point of view. Actually, whenever we have a chance to debate this point and present our solutions to any potential customer we usually win. Islamic finance has different processes governed by different regulations, different policies and procedures and unique documentation when compared with conventional finance. Profit and the way it is calculated is completely different to interest; investment and financing products are also different, and of course, all these fundamental differences lead to the need to have an IT solution that is designed based on a comprehensive understanding of Islamic finance.
What distinguishes Path Solutions from its competitors?
The answer is the execution on a vision, comprehensive solutions, fast deployment of these solutions and great support for our customers. This all translates to great total cost of ownership and tremendous value delivered to customers.
We realized early that Islamic finance is unique and different to conventional finance and we strived to be the IT leader for the segment. We designed and built our solutions to cater for Islamic finance needs. We partner with key organizations and thought leaders in the industry. We are the first AAOIFI-certified software firm. The certification covers all Islamic banking modules, business processes, contracts, Islamic accounting principles, implications and behaviour.
We built our solutions to be a comprehensive, modular, integrated set of solutions that offer functionality as good if not better than any conventional system out there. We offer modules that perform Core Banking, Investment, Financing, Treasury, Trade Finance, Retail and Corporate Banking in addition to Delivery Channels management and integration.
A very strong competitive advantage we have is the speed of our deployment and bringing our customers live. While many of our competitors struggle to bring their customers to live, we had new banks live in two to three months and have existing large banks migrated off their legacy systems in just nine months. This is unparalleled in our industry.
Of course, we have a great model for supporting our customers and continuously updating them to the newest version of our solutions at no additional cost. Customers continuously get the most updated solutions as part of their maintenance contract.
In your observation and opinion, what has been the impact of the ongoing financial crisis on Islamic banking & finance?
I believe the financial crisis highlighted the strengths of Islamic finance concepts. Tying assets to transactions is of critical importance. Pure economies based on Islamic finance would never have had such a crisis, but we all know such economies don’t exist. The future impact of this crisis on the industry would be decided based on the behaviour of market agents in the next few years. If the Islamic finance industry capitalized on this crisis by halting the translation of conventional products and financial instruments to Islamic products and by returning to the spirit of Islamic finance and addressing the shortcomings, I believe it would have had a tremendous positive impact. If we continue to do what we have done in the past years, this segment will continue to grow, but also will continue to be a sub-segment under conventional finance impacted by all the forces of conventional finance. It will never realize its full potential.
Which country is the most interesting from the viewpoint of your business?
We serve our segment in markets from as far as Malaysia in the East all the way to the United Kingdom in the West, and with Islamic finance emerging strongly in Africa, Central Asia and even China, we are excited by the new opportunities they bring.
We are in fact very enthusiastic about the development of Islamic finance worldwide. Malaysia continues to lead in Islamic finance with many interesting initiatives, e.g. The International Islamic Liquidity Management initiative and others are starting there. Similarly countries like Sudan where Islamic finance is the only form of finance; Oman announcing the opening up of Islamic banks to curb fund outflows, positive developments in Egypt as well, Qatar and the UAE leading different initiatives; seeing central banks representatives from countries like South Korea and Japan attending Islamic finance conferences is also a positive sign. Of course seeing Islamic finance reaching Moscow, Central Asia, and North America and further development in Europe is all very exciting stuff for us!
Where would you like to see yourself personally in the next 10 years?
The world is changing so fast, it’s so hard to see three years ahead, but I am a person with a very strong value system and professionally always focus on being a contributor who adds value to whatever I do. I would be happy if I continue to be just that in ten years and that I am not driven to irrelevance.
What do you do when you are not working? I am a very hardworking person, so when I am not working I spend time with my family; I enjoy helping my kids with school work, travelling with them, and educating them about life. I also enjoy reading and research.
