Founded on a simple conviction
kencanapad was established by practitioners who had spent formative years in the banking and finance groups of larger commercial firms — experienced enough to recognise that the work they valued most required a different kind of practice environment: one where every engagement could receive sustained senior attention, and where the counsel who signs the facility agreement is the same person who sat in the term sheet meeting.
The name draws from kencana — the finely worked gold of Southeast Asian treasury tradition — reflecting the firm's orientation toward careful, considered work rather than volume throughput. A facility agreement, a security package, a Sukuk structure: each is a document that will govern a commercial relationship for years. It deserves the same attention as the transaction it supports.
The practice opened in Kuala Lumpur with a deliberate focus on three practice areas — facility documentation, security enforcement, and Islamic finance — chosen because they represent the full lifecycle of a lending transaction in the Malaysian market. That focus has not changed.
"To provide corporate borrowers, financial institutions, and transaction sponsors with banking law counsel that is precise, unhurried, and led by practitioners who understand the full sequence of a transaction."
Transactions close on time when the documentation is correct from the outset. We do not rush the document review stage.
Our clients speak with the practitioner handling their matter, not a relay of junior staff.
Banking and finance law, exclusively. Depth over breadth.
Senior practitioners leading each engagement
Reza Hamizan
Called to the Malaysian Bar in 2009, Reza spent eleven years in the banking group of a leading KL commercial firm before establishing kencanapad. His practice centres on bilateral and syndicated facility documentation, with particular depth in leveraged and acquisition financings.
Nur Izzati Sulaiman
Izzati advises on Sukuk issuances, Musharakah Mutanaqisah facilities, and cross-border Islamic finance structures. She has coordinated Shariah advisory processes on transactions booked in both Kuala Lumpur and Labuan and holds a certificate in Islamic Finance from INCEIF.
Chen Siew Lian
Siew Lian handles security creation and perfection work across the firm's transactional practice, and assists on enforcement matters including receiver appointments and winding-up proceedings. Her background includes five years at a Kuala Lumpur disputes firm.
How we conduct each engagement
Bar Council membership
All advocates and solicitors at kencanapad hold valid practising certificates issued by the Malaysian Bar, with continuing professional development obligations met annually.
Professional indemnity
The firm maintains professional indemnity insurance in accordance with the Legal Profession Act 1976, covering all transactional and advisory work undertaken on behalf of clients.
Confidentiality protocols
Client matter information is handled under strict legal professional privilege obligations. All personnel engage under confidentiality agreements, and matter files are managed under document retention protocols.
IFSA 2013 compliance
Islamic finance engagements are conducted with reference to the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, BNM circulars, and SAC rulings. Documentation is reviewed against current Shariah pronouncements before execution.
Engagement letter practice
Each engagement begins with a written engagement letter setting out the scope of work, fee structure, and key terms. There are no fee revisions once the engagement letter has been signed, absent a material change in scope agreed in writing.
Conflict check process
A formal conflict check is conducted at the outset of every engagement, with results documented in the matter file. The firm does not accept engagements where an unresolvable conflict is identified.
Malaysian banking law in practice
Malaysian banking and finance law sits at the intersection of common law tradition, domestic statutory frameworks — the Companies Act 2016, National Land Code, and Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 — and a steadily deepening body of BNM regulatory guidance. Practitioners who work at this intersection regularly encounter the particular challenge of documentation that must satisfy requirements drawn from multiple sources simultaneously.
Facility agreements negotiated in the Malaysian market carry their own drafting conventions, which differ from LMA standard forms in ways that matter commercially — treatment of financial covenants, mechanics of enforcement, and the construction of MAC clauses have all developed through local market practice rather than template adoption. Counsel who have navigated these conventions across many transactions bring a kind of contextual fluency that is not readily acquired from reading precedents alone.
Islamic finance documentation in Malaysia similarly reflects a market that has developed its own solutions to the tension between commercial functionality and Shariah compliance. SAC rulings, AAOIFI standards, and the particular requirements of BNM-licensed institutions each shape what is and is not acceptable in a given structure. Experience of the process — including coordination with the institution's Shariah committee and timing of regulatory touchpoints — is as important as knowledge of the underlying law.
kencanapad was formed to make this kind of contextual, senior-led counsel available to corporate borrowers, sponsors, and financial institutions whose transactions merit dedicated attention rather than assignment to a team's most junior members.
Begin with a conversation
Whether your transaction is at the structuring stage or you have documentation ready for review, we are glad to hear the details before indicating whether and how we can assist.
Contact kencanapad