TRANSFORMED RHB SETS ITS SIGHTS ON BEING TOP 3 IN THE REGION

Kuala Lumpur, October 08, 2007:RHB Banking Group, the fourth largest financial services Group in Malaysia, has unveiled a Group-wide strategic transformation programme in pursuit of its aspiration to become one of the Top Three financial services providers in ASEAN by 2020.

This transformation programme will see, as one of its core initiatives, a significant change in the organizational and reporting structure of all the companies within the RHB Banking Group. The Group's core businesses, which are currently conducted by various legal entities within the Group, will be streamlined into four Strategic Business Units (SBUs) comprising Retail, Corporate Investment Banking, Islamic, and International, alongside four Strategic Functional Units (SFUs), namely Operations & Support, Finance, Risk Management and Human Resources.

Michael J. Barrett, who was the CEO of RHB Bank since January 2005, has been re-designated to Managing Director of RHB Bank and has also been appointed as Group Managing Director at RHB Capital effective 8 October 2007 to spearhead the Banking Group's Transformation journey.

Datuk Azlan Zainol, director of RHB Capital Bhd, said, "The setting of our Vision and Aspirations centred around creating an institution that is recognized for superior customer experience, which delivers superior shareholder value and is respected not just in Malaysia, but in the ASEAN region as well."

"The Group-wide Transformation is designed to harness the strengths of the RHB Banking Group to deliver seamlessly all products and services of the Group effectively to our customers whilst leveraging on the scale of the Group by removing duplication and finding new efficiencies," Datuk Azlan said.

"The Retail SBU will be a key pillar of our growth with the Corporate Investment Bank SBU focusing on deepening the relationships with our corporate clients, improving earnings through a thorough understanding of our customer's needs and the provision of a holistic suite of products and services to meet those needs.

"The Islamic Banking SBU will be a key future growth driver and we expect that, in line with Malaysia's aspirations of being the International Islamic Financial Centre, there will be significant opportunities for rapid growth. We also have an International SBU that is tasked to improve contributions from outside Malaysia to augment our earnings base.

"RHB has delivered sound performance in the past few years. Net profit improved by 39% in 2006 and it had achieved a 45% earnings growth in the first half of 2007. On the back of these good performances together with a commitment from all our employees, we are confident that we will be able to meet our stated Aspiration and our first milestone of doubling our profitability and market capitalization by the year 2010," Datuk Azlan concluded.

RHB Banking Group is one of the leading financial services groups in Malaysia, providing a full suite of products and services in Retail and Corporate & Investment Banking, as well as in the Islamic and International Segments. As at the end of July 2007, its market capitalisation had exceeded RM13 billion. RHB is leveraging on its core values of customer focus, respect, teamwork, innovation and quality service in line with its Vision: "Your Partner for Growth".