Group chief corporate strategy officer Hardee Ibrahim will assume the role of acting group president and CEO from Sept 3, the development financial institution said.

“Hardee Ibrahim brings over 20 years of extensive experience in the financial services industry, specialising in business banking and strategic management.

“He has served SME Bank in numerous portfolios, including treasury, corporate finance, business banking and most recently, corporate strategy,” it said in a statement today.

SME Bank said that under Aria Putera’s six-year leadership, he has paved the way for the bank to fulfil its mandate in supporting and developing small and medium enterprises in Malaysia.

This began with redefining its vision and mission, and introducing its SMILE core values, it said.

In 2019, he introduced the two-year accelerated programme, a strategic plan to revamp the bank’s business with 27 initiatives focusing on sustainable developmental goals, asset quality, a comprehensive SME ecosystem, digitalisation, and talent development.

“SME Bank has shown tremendous improvement in asset quality and financing growth during his tenure, with the gross financing amount recording a 37.6% growth from RM6.47 billion in 2018 to RM8.9 billion as at end-2023, while the gross impaired rate reduced to 12.5% from 22.9%,” it said.

In addition, the bank said, Aria Putera initiated multiple relief programmes from October 2020 to September 2022, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, to support SMEs and microenterprises in various industries, which benefitted more than 5,000 companies with a total financing of RM9.12 billion.