Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Banking on banks

The National Banks Sports Council (NBSC) was once helmed by Dom Amy Hussain, husband of Datuk Paduka Dr Mumtaz Begum Abdul Jaffar, chairman of Yakeb, the national athletes welfare foundation.

A regular fixture in the domestic calendar was the inter-bank athletics meet, where the cream of the crop cross swords with each other. Those days watching Nur Herman Majid, Hamdi Jaafar and Hanapiah Nasir dashing towards the finish line after 10 hurdles was, really, one of the top stories of the year.

Media coverage on the inter-bank meet was tremendous due to the fact the top athletes were competing against each other, usually ahead of a major event.

These days, the NBSC is still active. Its office-bearers in fact continue to organise events such as the inter financial institutions futsal tournament.

With their financial muscle, the nation's financial institutions are potentially the biggest players in the sports industry.

Public Bank was a major player in football's Super League, while Maybank remains the major sponsor of the Malaysian Open golf tournament. CIMB continues to support Nicol Ann David. Can we expect more, perhaps?


Syed Anuar Syed Ali, Director, Group Public Affairs, AmBank Group (in the centre with black rimmed specs and red shirt) posing with the winning team - CIMB


Press release

AmBank Group finishes third in the 6th AmBank Group Inter Financial Institutions Futsal Tournament 2009/2010.

AmBank Group, main sponsors of the tournament, saw its ‘A’ team lost 1-2 in the semis in extra time to eventual champions, CIMB.

Mohamad Fadzil Karim was CIMB’s hero when he scored the winner in extra time to deny AmBank ‘A’ a place in the final at the Sports Planet, Subang Jaya. Employees’ Provident Fund (KWSP) finished joint third.

CIMB went on to clinch their second AmBank Group Inter Financial Institutions futsal title with a 4-0 win over Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) in the final on Sunday. For their efforts, CIMB won RM2,000 in prize money and the AmBank Group Inter Financial Challenge trophy. Fadzil was also named the Man of the Match.

In the Veteran category final, Agro Bank denied CIMB a double by defeating them 2-1 to clinch the prize money of RM1,000. Last year’s champion Public Bank and HSBC finished in joint third position.

The women’s final saw Maybank (MBB ‘A’) edge KWSP 1-0 with Nor Faizah Othman scoring the winner and also picking up the Women of the match title. MBB ‘A’ collected RM1,000 for their efforts.

The prizes were given away by Syed Anuar Syed Ali, Director, Group Public Affairs, AmBank Group.

“The quality of play has gone up this year and we hope to see more teams from the financial and insurance institutions participate in next year’s edition. On AmBank Group’s performance, we hope to perform better for next year’s tournament,” said Syed Anuar.

AmBank Group’s contribution for this year’s tournament was RM25,000 and the new teams who participated this year are Uni.Asia Life Assurance, Jerneh Insurance and Exim Bank.

A total of 72 teams competed in the 6th AmBank Group Inter Financial Institutions futsal tournament.

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