Maybank president and group chief executive officer Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli.
PETALING JAYA: Malayan Banking Bhd
(Maybank), the fourth largest bank in South-East Asia in terms of assets, will continue to leverage its regional presence and sizable customer base to grow in its home markets and selected business lines across the region.
The group said it will advance the application of values-based banking principles through its solutions and services as a strategic differentiator to drive economic value and in line with its mission of Humanising Financial Services.
In addition, Maybank president and group chief executive officer Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said as the lender advances through its M25+ journey, he reiterated its commitment to embedding customer relationships across segments, building on its advanced digital capabilities.
“A key enabler of our performance is the continued deepening of the agile ways of working, where we have further enhanced collaboration, improved decision-making speed and increased our ability to respond effectively to changing customer needs and market dynamics,” he said.
Maybank released its results for the third quarter ended Sept 30 of financial year 2024 (3Q24) yesterday, and together with that, its performance for the first nine months of financial year 2024 (9M24), which saw the group’s cumulative net profit climb 8.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM7.56bil.
The strong 9M24 performance was driven by a 10.3% y-o-y growth in group revenue to RM52.2bil.
For 3Q24 itself, the lender also posted a 7.6% y-o-y increase in net earnings to RM2.54bil, as group turnover edged up 4.2% to RM16.7bil.
In a note released in conjunction with its results announcement, Maybank attributed its “commendable” year-to-September results to strong growth in its non-interest income (NOII) segment, driven by improved core fees and insurance performance.
Delving deeper into the numbers, the group reported that net operating income for 9M24 had increased by 8.7% y-o-y to RM22.15bil, propelled by a higher NOII of 26% to RM7.49bil compared to the same period last year.
“NOII was boosted by strong growth in core fees which rose 13.4%. Concurrently, net fund based income also improved 1.5% to RM14.66bil from RM14.44bil compared to a year earlier, supported by solid loans growth of 4.8% year-to-date annualised from all key segments in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia,” said Maybank.
On the other hand, it said net interest margin (NIM) declined 14 basis points (bps) y-o-y as a result of higher funding cost across its home markets, although it remarked that NIM has been stable at 2.04% since 2Q24.
The lender also revealed that overhead costs expanded to RM10.77bil from RM9.77bil a year earlier due to higher personnel costs, information technology expenses, administration and general costs as well as marketing expenses.
Notwithstanding that, it added that its pre-provisioning operating profit (PPOP) was up by 7.2% y-o-y to RM11.38bil.
“Net impairment provisions stood at RM1.27bil from RM1.21bil a year earlier, while net loan provisions decreased by 10% to RM1.23bil, driven by higher recoveries.
“This resulted in a lower net credit charge off rate for loans of 26 bps from 31 bps the year before. Gross impaired loans ratio decreased to 1.26% from 1.43% a year earlier while loan loss coverage remained comfortable at 125.8%,” observed Maybank.
Of note, it reported that group loans also expanded by 4.8% year-to-date as at Sept 30, lifted by increases of 8%, 14.5% and 8.9% in its home markets of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, respectively.
Group deposits, meanwhile expanded 6.7% as fixed deposits and current account-savings account deposits grew equally by 0.6%.
Comparing 3Q24 results from the corresponding three months of 2023, the nation’s largest lending group said net operating income was up by 7.1% y-o-y to RM7.23bil, led by a strong 20.9% rise in NOII to RM2.34bil while net fund based income grew by 1.5% to RM4.89bil.
It said PPOP for the quarter stood at RM3.71bil, up 7.4% compared with a year earlier, although overhead expenses were slightly higher at RM3.52bil from RM3.3bil in 2023.
Providing further sectoral information on its businesses, Maybank said its group community financial services segment continued to strengthen its franchise in 9M24, registering a 7.1% y-o-y increase in net operating income to RM13.4bil.
It said this was backed by a steady growth in both its NOII and net fund based income by 12% and 5.6% respectively, compared with a year earlier.
“Our wealth management business, a key focus segment for the group, maintained its upward trajectory with total financial assets rising 8.7% from a year earlier to reach RM497.6bil, contributed by growth in loans of 19.2% year-to-date and investments of 12%,” it added.
At the same time, Maybank said corporate loans growth remained strong across three home markets of its group global banking segment, with y-o-y growth of 14.5% in Malaysia, 16.4% in Singapore and 6.7% in Indonesia, contributing to an overall increase of 6.8%.
The lender also reported that its Etiqa Insurance and Takaful business registered a robust increase in pre-tax profit by 56.6% y-o-y to RM1.01bil for 9M24, as total net adjusted premium was 19.7% higher on the back of a strong 25.5% y-o-y increase in total life and family net adjusted premiums and a 12.4% rise in total general net written premiums.
“Etiqa maintained its top position in the general insurance and takaful (Malaysia) segment with a 16.9% market share and third in the life / family (new business) segment with a 14.3% market share,” said the group.
Moving forward, Maybank emphasised that continuing to manage risks appropriately, ensuring robust asset quality, sound liquidity and maintaining strong capital will remain its top priorities.
The lender said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia that the roll out of digital solutions will be accelerated in line with a holistic, regional digital business model to address end-to-end customer lifestyle needs, with the goal of deepening relationships with existing customers and acquiring new customers, by applying the agile ways of working aligned to M25+.
M25+ is Maybank’s corporate strategy of intensifying customer centricity, accelerating digitalisation and technological modernisation, strengthening the group’s business presence and position beyond Malaysia, driving its leadership position in the sustainability agenda as well as becoming a global leader in Islamic banking.
