Dr Imran Lum (2008 Alumnus) - Head of Islamic Finance, National Australia Bank

Imran Lum is a banker and bridge-builder. As Head of Islamic Finance at National Australia Bank, he pioneered Australia’s first Islamic business banking offering. A former Australia-ASEAN Council board member and a recipient of the 2019 Asian Australian Leadership Award, Lum straddles multiple identities with dexterity. 

Born in Adelaide to a Cantonese Malaysian father and a Malay Muslim mother, Lum notes that the discomfort of growing up as the ‘other’ in white-majority Australia has never entirely faded. That early alienation planted the seed for his lifelong engagement with Asia, not by choice, but necessity. “When you’re told you don’t belong in this country—first as an Asian and then as a Muslim,” he reflects, “you have to reconcile your sense of identity. You’re forced to address it.” 

Now one of the country’s most prominent figures in Islamic finance as well as an academic, author and podcaster, Lum is a case study in Asia capability. But he doesn’t treat it as a catchphrase. Rather, he regards it as a lived discipline, something Australians must learn to understand and function credibly in the region. 

Lum says that he was already culturally in tune with the different cultures of Southeast Asia because of his heritage. However, he was exploring how people from diverse backgrounds could overcome institutionalised bias and “actualise their potential.” That led to him joining the Asialink Leaders Program during his studies. 

“I felt that the Asialink Leaders Program gave me a theoretical framework around cross-cultural communication that I had been living my whole life, that allowed me to understand the cultural interaction and what’s actually going on,” Lum says. 

This included learning from the reaction of some of his peers during the Program’s cross-cultural exercises. “As a person of colour, you’re used to that uncomfortable confrontation,” Lum reflects. But for some participants, it was their first brush with cultural dissonance. “What Australia could learn more of is cultural capital on how Asian societies operate and interact,” he says, whether linguistically, religiously or relationally. 

The failure to grasp this distinction, Lum argues, is a commercial handicap. “In business, it has a massive impact from a relationship perspective, it causes so many missed opportunities,” he says. In Muslim Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and further into the Muslim world, business is personal. “It’s all about relationships, trust, connection. They need to know and trust you, they need to learn about your family, and they need to know that you’re a good person before they’ll work with you,” he says. 

Instead, he recounts that too many Australian executives arrive in Asia, pitch deck in hand, expecting a handshake and a signature. “They’ll go there and get straight into the deal,” he says, bypassing the relational groundwork. Too often, he adds, Australians misread Asian cultural cues like not shaking hands with someone from the opposite gender, or indirectness—which is designed to preserve harmony—as evasiveness. Failure to read other cultural cues could cost a deal. 

Ironically, Lum says that small Australian businesses seem to better understand the need to build relationships for business success than the ‘suits’ in corporate roles. Using businesses that export halal food as an example, he says they do well with relationship building because their transactions are often clearer cut. 

But when it comes to strategic engagement, especially in finance and investment, “Australia doesn’t have enough cultural competency to engage in a meaningful way,” according to Lum. 

“There’s a lack of self-awareness,” he adds. “If you don’t appreciate the counterparty’s cultural worldview, you can’t interact on a parity basis.” 

As a financial hub in the region, Singapore’s cultural fluency could be a model for Australia.  

One country that does get it, says Lum, is Singapore. A large percentage of his clients are Singaporean Chinese, and although they are not Muslim, he says they routinely advocate for Islamic finance to meet the needs of their Middle Eastern investors. 

The secret? Cultural fluency. “Singaporean asset managers are culturally capable,” he says. “They’ve been able to get to a point where they understand this is just how their clients want to do business,” he says. Without this, Lum says Australia is missing out on business opportunities, giving an example of a large deal that he has worked on. 

“It was a substantial transaction, but the investors chose Singaporean investment managers,” he says. “There’s no reason why Australian funds can’t also attract those funds.” 

Despite his frustrations, Lum is a firm believer that better is possible. He views Islamic finance as a template for how Australia might engage more deftly with its region: with empathy, cultural literacy and commercial acumen. “Islamic finance forces you to understand both sides,” he says. “It’s a microcosm of how we should engage with Asia: it necessitates listening and adjusting on both sides.” 

The future, he suggests, will belong to those who are fluent not just in language, but in nuance. “When that parity is forced upon you, when Asia rises, you’ll need to be equipped. Otherwise, you’ll just retreat into your comfort zone. And that only deepens the distance.” The message is not one of despair but of discipline. Asia’s ascent is not a threat, it is an invitation to succeed for those willing to engage, with ears open and egos parked. 

Dr Imran Lum is the Head of Islamic Finance at National Australia Bank. He completed the Asialink Leaders Program in 2008. The views shared in this interview are solely those of Imran Lum and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer.