Readily available and modular hybrid amine/benzimidazole-based 1H-benzimidazole-2-methanamine (BIMA) ligands in combination with 2,3-O-isopropylidene-2,3-dihydroxy-1,4-bis(diphen-A C H T U N G T R E N N U N G ylphosphino)butane (DIOP) afford efficient catalytic systems for the ruthenium(II)-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation (AH) of a number of aryl ketones. The AH proceeds smoothly with substrateto-catalyst (S/C) molar ratios of up to 100,000 (TOF of 6500 h À1 , 8 atm) giving chiral alcohols in up to 99% ee.