Takaful Ikhlas Bhd President and CEO, Datuk Ab Latiff Abu Bakar, has been named Best CEO 2017 for the takaful industry at the Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) 2017 Awards Ceremony.

Takaful Ikhlas, in a statement today, said the award presented to Ab Latiff was to recognise his contribution to the development of Malaysia's takaful industry through various initiatives and product innovations, as well as, his efforts in driving the success of Takaful Ikhlas.

"Through Ab Latiff's leadership, Takaful Ikhlas had recorded strong business growth in both its Family and General Takaful businesses during the financial year ended March 31, 2017 (FY17)," it said.

Takaful Ikhlas registered a growth of 9.3 percent in gross contribution to RM989 million as compared to RM904.9 million registered in FY16.

Family Takaful business gross contribution grew by 10.3 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM674.1 million while General Takaful business gross contribution expanded by 7.2 percent y-o-y to RM315 million.

Takaful Ikhlas said it had also successfully developed innovative products to meet the different customer needs and demands, catering to all types of customer segments which included individuals, families, women, as well as, individuals with special needs.

The GIFA 2017 Best CEO Award is the second award received by Takaful Ikhlas this year after being named as the Best Takaful Company 2017 at the 7th Asian Islamic Banking and Takaful Conference which took place last month. -- BERNAMA