Recently, McKinsey sat down with two Asian banking leaders: Uday Kotak, executive vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Group, and Dato’ Sri Nazir Razak, CEO of CIMB Group. These are two of the leading institutions in corporate and investment banking in Southeast Asia and India. Joydeep Sengupta, a director in McKinsey’s Singapore office, led the discussion.

The Quarterly: I would like to start by asking about your views on the discontinuities in Asian corporate and investment banking and the opportunities they present, especially as the financial crisis fades.

Dato’ Sri Nazir Razak: As far as the bigger picture is concerned, the growth story is a very good one. If you talk about capital markets, they are still nascent in many countries. Even in Malaysia, despite all of the development, I think there is still much growth potential, as many companies are still funding directly from the banking system. We also see opportunities on the buy side, for instance, where funds are still concentrated in government investment companies. In the smaller markets like Cambodia and Vietnam, capital markets will grow exponentially when they do take off.