New CIMB CEO sets ambitious goals to be met by 2018

FROM as early as 2004 when savvy banker Zafrul Abdul Aziz helmed a smallish Malaysian state-owned financial services outfit Avenue Capital Resources, he never quite took his eye off the ball, despite switching several jobs along the way.

That gilded ball fell on Mr Zafrul's lap when CIMB stalwart Nazir Razak called it a day as chief executive of the bank last July, leaving the door to the C-suite of Malaysia's second largest lender wide open for the 42-year old.

And so in February this year, following the central bank's blessing and just one year after he joined the firm, he became CIMB group chief executive officer and executive director.

Now armed with a target-packed plan dubbed T18, with ambitious goals to hit by 2018, his first deed is to swing the axe on some 65 jobs. In total, the bank has cut 150 jobs so far - in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and India, including more recently 15 job cuts in Singapore - to shift capital away from the moribund trading desks a…