Nitish Bhojnagarwala Senior Vice President/Manager, Financial Institutions Group Moody's Ratings

Nitish Bhojnagarwala is a Senior Vice President/Manager with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Nitish covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic financial institutions in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.

Nitish joined Moody’s in 2011, and has led sukuk roundtables and conducted workshops on Banking and Islamic finance at various conferences in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Nitish has also authored several research pieces, with a focus on regional banking, credit issues and issuer-in-depths for conventional as well as Islamic banks.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Nitish spent five years at Tamweel in the Treasury function. He has also worked for KPMG in the UAE, where he covered financial institutions. Nitish holds an MBA from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, with a major in Finance (Investment Banking).

Datuk Chung President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Cagamas Berhad

Datuk Chung Chee Leong is the President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cagamas Berhad, Malaysia’s national mortgage corporation, a post he held since 1 April 2012.

Over the past 10 years, Datuk Chung has led Cagamas’ transformation into an international market player and was instrumental in establishing the Company’s USD5 billion Multicurrency EMTN Programme, under which Cagamas’ inaugural and Southeast Asia’s largest Offshore Renminbi bond was issued followed by the issuance of the country’s largest Sukuk issuance, the issuance of its inaugural USD bond with a benchmark issue size of USD 500 million and the issuance of the first floating rate bonds based on Malaysia overnight rate (“MYOR”) reference. More recently, Datuk Chung oversaw the successful introduction of Malaysia’s reverse mortgage, Skim Saraan Bercagar in 2021. This was followed by the world’s first Islamic reverse mortgage scheme, Skim Saraan Bercagar Islamik in 2022.

Datuk Chung also oversaw the advancement of Cagamas’ sustainability agenda with the establishment of the Cagamas Sustainability Framework, Cagamas Sustainability Bond/Sukuk Framework and Cagamas Sustainability Investment Framework. Since 2020, Cagamas has cumulatively issued a total of RM2.5 billion of sustainability and social bonds/sukuk.

Prior to his appointment, Datuk Chung had 29 years of experience in central banking focusing mainly on financial system stability and the financial sector. He was formerly a member of the Panel of Experts in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, former Chairman of the International Secondary Mortgage Market Association and served as the first Chairman of the Asian Secondary Mortgage Market Association. Datuk Chung previously served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Credit Guarantee Corporation Berhad.

Datuk Chung was honoured with The Asset Triple A Islamic Finance 2022 Industry Leadership Award and the GIFA Special Award (Islamic Financial Advocacy) 2020 in recognition of his leadership in Islamic finance and driving the Company to play a key role in supporting the Malaysian sukuk market and providing a benchmark for other issuers in Malaysia.

Datuk Chung holds a Bachelor of Economics degree, majoring in Business Administration from the University of Malaya. He attended the Summer School Programme at the University of Cambridge.

Sharidan Salleh Rating Portfolio Head for Oil & Gas and Power sectors MARC Ratings Berhad

Sharidan is the Rating Portfolio Head for Oil & Gas and Power sectors. He has been with MARC for 12 years. Prior to joining MARC, he spent 13 years working in the local financial services industry in the areas of credit, investment research and private equity investment.

Christian de Guzman Senior Vice President, Sovereign Risk Moody's Ratings

Christian de Guzman is a Senior Vice President with Moody’s Sovereign and Sub-Sovereign Risk Group. Based in Singapore, he covers a portfolio of sovereigns and multilateral development banks in Asia Pacific, including Japan, India and a number of Southeast Asian credits, while also managing the team responsible for sub-sovereign ratings in Asia ex-China.

Christian joined Moody’s in 2009, after working as a Senior Economist for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, covering ASEAN economies. He has also held various positions with the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, and Procter & Gamble in Singapore.

Christian was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in Economics and Political Science at the University of Georgia and received his M.A. in International Economics and Southeast Asian Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Tengfu Li Vice President - Senior Analyst, Financial Institutions Moody's Ratings

Tengfu Li is an Assistant Vice President – Analyst with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group.

Based in Singapore, he is responsible for the credit ratings of financial institutions in Indonesia and Malaysia. Prior to Moody’s, Tengfu worked at OCBC Bank, where he developed credit risk models.

Tengfu holds a MSc in Accountancy from Nanyang Technological University, and a BEng in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore.

Chong Jun Wong Assistant Vice President - Analyst, Financial Institutions Moody’s Ratings

CJ Wong is an Analyst with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group.

Based in Singapore, CJ covers a portfolio of banks and non-bank financial institutions in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Vietnam

Prior to joining Moody’s, CJ worked as a research analyst in the Dividend Forecasting team at IHS Markit, where he was responsible for providing estimates on financial institutions and corporates in Australia and Singapore.

CJ holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Sydney, majoring in Finance and Economics. He is a CFA Charterholder.

Maisam Hasnain Vice President - Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance Group Moody's Ratings

Maisam Hasnain is a Vice President - Senior Analyst in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group. 

Based in Singapore, Maisam covers a portfolio of companies across the industrial, mining and plantation sectors in Southeast Asia. 

Prior to his move to Singapore in 2017, Maisam spent four years in Moody’s Hong Kong office covering a broad array of sectors, including telecommunications, communications infrastructure, building materials, and metals and mining. 

Maisam joined Moody’s in 2010 and started as an Associate in Moody’s Regional Product Strategy team, which is responsible for managing all aspects of Moody’s research and data service offerings, including new business initiatives. 

Maisam holds a double major in Economics and Finance, and a minor in Arabic from The University of Hong Kong. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Ibrahim Muhammad Associate Lead Analyst, Sustainable Finance Moody’s Ratings

Ibrahim works as Associate Lead Analyst, Sustainable Finance at Moody’s and is primarily responsible for conducting external reviews on the frameworks of Green, Social and Sustainability-labelled financial instruments. Ibrahim has worked on issuing more than 10 Second Party Opinions covering sovereigns and issuers across various sectors in APAC and Europe.

Prior to Moody’s, Ibrahim was a lead researcher at NUS Business School’s Centre for Governance and Sustainability, publishing ESG indices covering APAC markets. He has co-authored numerous industry reports in corporate governance, sustainability and family business domains and has been a regular speaker promulgating good governance and responsible investing in the region.

Ibrahim holds a Master of Business Administration (Strategy and Finance) and Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy), both from National University of Singapore, and is a Chartered Accountant (CA) of Singapore.