KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) is not looking to apply for a banking licence at this stage, said its president and chief executive officer, Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman.

He said over the past two years, MBSB has been involved in merger exercises with CIMB Bank and Bank Muamalat, all with the intention of putting it in a banking kind of platform.

"The road to getting on a banking platform through mergers was the intention then but at the current stage, MBSB has no intention to apply for any licence," he told a media briefing after the shareholders' meetings on Thursday.

However, he said, at the end of the day, it's the shareholders that would decide which route to go.

Ahmad Zaini said to become a fully-fledged bank, MBBS has to beef up capital, manage its credit risks and operations as well as continue to implement its corporate governance plans. 

Meanwhile, he said, the EGM did not deliberate much on the poposed rights issue to raise up to RM2 billion to meet its capital requirement. - Bernama