Working her way up the financial ladder

MAIMOONAH Hussain graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Accountancy. She began her career at Morgan, Grenfell & Co, Asia and spent 13 years with the company.

Prior to her career at the Affin banking group, Mdm Maimoonah was head of syndications at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, where she was responsible for developing the firm's debt syndications business across Asean. She was also seconded to Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia to develop the Malaysian and cross-border debt business, prior to joining the Affin Banking Group.

The Affin Hwang Capital group employs around 1,300 people in Malaysia. Its securities business currently engages almost 800 remisiers.

Its asset management arm is a 70 per cent subsidiary of Affin Hwang investment bank, with the remaining 30 per cent owned by Nikko Asset Management Asia. It manages more than RM30 billion in assets.

TIMELINE

2003: Joined the Affin Banking Group as an executive vice-president.

2007: Appointed managing director of Affin's investment bank.

2007-2012: Established a multi-disciplinary investment banking client coverage team; expanded domestic network of the retail securities business through the doubling of the Klang Valley branch network.

2013: Built an alliance with Daiwa Securities Group to facilitate cross-border institutional equity trading and distribution of co-branded research.

2014: Led and won the RM1.36 billion bid for the purchase of HwangDBS investment banking, asset management and futures businesses amid competition from AMMB Holdings, Alliance Financial Group and K&N Kenanga Holdings.

Following the merger, Mdm Maimoonah was appointed group managing director of Affin Hwang Capital, giving her management oversight across the group which comprises investment banking, securities and asset management business divisions.

Affin Hwang's investment bank was ranked the No 1 brokerage by both traded volume and traded value by Bursa Malaysia; and was also named Best Equities Investment Bank and the Best Institutional Equities Investment Bank at Bursa Malaysia Broker Awards.

Its analysts were named top stock pickers in three sector categories in the StarMine Asia 2014 Industry Analyst Awards.

READ MORE: Affin Hwang sets sights on new heights