KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — AmBank Islamic Bhd is on track to achieve a slightly higher loans growth than the industry’s average of between four per cent and five per cent for the financial year ending March 31, 2018.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Eqhwan Mokhzanee Muhammad, said this would be driven by small and medium enterprises and the mass affluent market segment.

"At the moment, yes, we are on track and will reveal everything at the right time,” he told reporters after a ceremony to rename University Teknologi Malaysia’s (UTM) International Business School (IBS) to Azman Hashim IBS here today.

At the function, AmBank Islamic also announced its partnership with UTM and online bill payment service, JomPAY, to provide added convenience, accessibility and flexibility for the public and corporate sector to make contributions to the UTM Education Endowment Fund (UEEF).

"With the collaboration with UTM and JomPAY, we are pleased to embark on another initiative to offer more products to our customers while helping to raise funds for the UEEF, which will be used to assist needy UTM students,” he said.

Meanwhile, UTM Vice-Chancellor, Datuk Dr Wahid Omar, said currently, the endowment totalled RM87 million, and the university aimed to increase it to RM500 million by 2020.

"We believe the target is achievable as many companies want to contribute to the fund.

"The Azman Hashim Foundation has also agreed to contribute RM5 million yearly, over six years, to the UEEF,” he said, adding that one company has recently confirmed a RM2 million contribution to the fund

The UEEF was set up to provide financial assistance to UTM students who excelled academically but faced financial difficulties.

Since it was established in 2009, the fund has disbursed more than RM20 million in scholarships and financial assistance to 751 recipients, Wahid said. — Bernama