CEO Insights Magazine

As some of the most influential individuals in the world of business, Deputy Chief Executive Officers play an extremely important role. They are the ones that implement the organization’s vision, formulating strategic plans which are aligned with that vision, and supporting the leadership direction and governance necessary to ensure the successful delivery of strategic and financial goals. They also ensure the organization’s governance, culture, structure, processes, and financial targets meet the strategic objectives set by the shareholders. CEO Insights’ exclusive team connects with one such energetic and passionate leader, Malay Kumer Paul, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Cambodia Post Bank who enjoys driving transformation and has a successful track record of understanding what it takes to build and support successful cultures and organizations.

Malay has 28+ years of experience in Financial Services with direct operational engagement in SME, Retail, Micro Finance & Mobile money businesses with a special focus on Credit Risk Management functions. His expertise lies in setting up Microfinance and Bank business including greenfield and has an end-to-end business cycle management experience in APAC, Middle East, and Asian market. He has hands-on experience in overall risk management in the emerging and frontier markets namely in Bangladesh, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Vietnam, China, Myanmar, and Cambodia. His key achievements include restructuring both the Retail & SME Credit Risk Management function in Standard Chartered Bank, Bahrain, and BRAC Bank Bangladesh.

Currently, he is leveraging his expertise and leadership ability to oversee CP Bank’s business and operational strategic planning and development to make informed decisions about the Bank’s future and ensure to move it in the right direction.

Let’s hear it from him.

Define CP Bank and its position in the market.

Cambodia Post Bank (CP Bank) was established in September 2013 under the strategic partnership among Canadia Investment Holding (CIH) one of the largest conglomerates in Cambodia, Cambodia Post (CP) of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and Fullerton Financial Capital (FFC) a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek, Singapore. From 2013 till date, CPBank has evolved and transformed as the best mass-market bank that embraces global best practices and chooses to be at the forefront of technological initiatives. We have 61 branches across the country and we are the number fifteenth in terms of our asset size, the number twelfth in terms of loans, and the number thirteenth in terms of deposits among 67 Banks in the country. Moreover, we have acquired a Microfinance named Funan as our subsidiary in 2017 to serve the rural mass market segment through its 51 branches in Cambodia.

What is your role as the Deputy Chief Execu­tive Officer of CP Bank? How do you develop effective corporate growth strategies for the company?

My role in the business covers spearheading all the branch operations, profit & loss management of loans, deposit portfolio along with third-party relationships management for CP Bank group. My business team manages the lending and deposit business, the marketing team manages all media for marketing activities along with the call center for customer services, and the operations team manages the overall operation of the Bank along with the administration team for all procurement and logistic supports. I am also the Chairman of the Operation Risk Management Committee and a member of almost every management committee in the bank.

We have established five-year growth plans based on the different scenarios and economic conditions of the country and we generally realign that on yearly basis considering the overall situation. We incorporate our business strategy based on our risk appetite and I see how and in which area we need to realign either to adjust or accelerate in order to achieve the goal.

How do you foster a learning culture in your team? What are the best industry practices you help them inculcate when they provide the bank services and solutions to the customers?

A successful, long career at the Bank begins with a solid foundation. We offer Induction training for freshers which provides an overview of our bank to new employees. Our effective, custom induction training builds employees who are more motivated, and better prepared to excel at their jobs. We also arrange department-specific required training which helps employees to increase their aptitudes, skills, and abilities to perform specific jobs. We believe in continuous learning; learning and development initiatives make our employees more loyal to the Bank in the long run.

For us, customer experience is the top priority and we focus on building systems that can cater customer needs of doing financial transactions conveniently and securely. These eventually create loyal customers for the bank. We have a clear digital road map for the Bank and we have implemented various process improvements as well as digitized our processes. We have introduced a loan origination system and loan collection system which makes our loan acquisition and collection completely digital. We also have a digital onboarding process for deposit customers as well. Our bank can provide you a very good investment opportunity in Cambodia.

What is the future destination you are headed towards?

My goal is to work with organizations that serve SMEs, which I believe is the major growth engine of any economy in the world. I am also passionately working towards sustainability and environmental issues; we all are responsible for the damage that is taking place around us and we all need to play a significant role to make sustainable changes. Speaking of the financial industry, I aspire to put myself into making extensive contributions to the development of the SME sector and drive this segment toward substantial growth.

Malay Kumer Paul, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, CP Bank

Holding a first-class Master’s degree in Soil Water and Environment Science from Dhaka University and also an MBA from BRAC University, Malay is passionate about driving growth, setting clear direction, balancing between risk and reward, inspiring multi-disciplinary teams, and making real change.