KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Bernama) -- CIMB Group is embarking on its next transformational growth phase under a five-year blueprint called “Forward23” which aims to capture the opportunities of the evolving banking landscape and future proof its business.

It said ASEAN would remain the group’s geographical focus given the strong network and footprint that the bank had built over the last decade. 

Under Foward23, CIMB had identified five strategic pivots - customer-centricity, technology and data, people, ventures and partnerships and sustainability - as its main focus. 

In a statement today, group chief executive Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said Forward23 builds on the success of the bank’s four year-strategic plan called Target 2018 (T18) which was initiated in 2014.

"Forward23 is our plan to proactively disrupt ourselves in order to drive transformational growth, by building new or enhancing existing capabilities. 

"CIMB’s strong execution capability was proven by the success of T18 and I am confident that the team will once again be able to deliver on our Forward23 targets and continuously generate sustainable value for our stakeholders,” he said.

Under the new strategic blueprint which aimed to accelerate growth and future-proof its business, CIMB outlined three financial targets to be achieved by 2023, namely, a return on equity of more than 12 per cent, a common equity tier one ratio of over 13 per cent and a cost to income ratio of below 45 per cent. 

“There are also non-financial targets related to customer experience, environmental, social and governance rankings and ratio of digitally-skilled staff,” it added.

-- BERNAMA