New head for Malaysian bourse

Datuk Tajuddin Atan, the outgoing group chief executive officer of the country's fourth largest bank RHB Capital Bhd, will be taking over as the CEO of Bursa Malaysia Bhd.

Tajuddin will succeed Datuk Yusli Mohamed Yusoff who had stepped down after eight years of heading the exchange.

The mandate for the new CEO is to develop Bursa into an attractive and competitive exchange in the region and to make the capital market more vibrant. Tajuddin will be tasked to ensure Bursa remains a destination of choice for issuers and investors.

RHB Capital delivered a set of impressive figures in its fourth quarter earnings to Dec. 31, 2010. This showed that its five-year transformational plan was moving along as planned. Revenue increased 20.68 percent to RM1.68 billion while net profit was up 13 percent to RM380.15mil. For the full year, revenue was up 13.34 percent to RM6.15bil, while net profit increased 18.22 percent to RM1.42bil.

The strong earnings were driven by higher net interest income, non-interest income and lower allowances.

Its full year net profit rose by 18 percent, attributable to higher net interest income, non-interest income, Islamic Banking income and lower impairment allowances.

At RHB, Tajuddin has been instrumental in elevating the group's business performance, operational efficiency and development as well as implementing innovative technology in line with its transformation plan.

He currently serves as a non-executive director and public interest director of the Bursa board since July 14, 2008.

He is also chairman of the risk management committee and member of the audit committee and appeals committee of Bursa.