Ready to face the music in Malaysia

Maybank CEO Amirsham Aziz believes Malay banks are ready to face foreign competition, he tells Karina Robinson.

A grey-haired man wearing a grey shirt and grey trousers is not a promising subject. But Amirsham Aziz, the unassuming president and CEO of Maybank, Malaysia’s banking behemoth, turns out to be a fan of the Havana-based Tropicana nightclub. He goes on about “the trees, the music, the sound, the acoustics, the colours”. (My emphasis would have been on the three dozen gorgeous mulatas (mixed race girls) who form the chorus line of probably the oldest outdoor cabaret show in the world, but perhaps only women can say these things nowadays.)