CIMB Group CEO Novan Amirudin
KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group
Holdings Bhd said it is on track to hitting its targets for the current financial year, although it remains cautious of external uncertainties.
Group CEO Novan Amirudin said the bank has made significant investment in strengthening its technology resiliency to deliver a superior customer experience.
"We aim to strengthen our deposit franchise and embrace the theme of ‘simpler, better, faster’ throughout our business, which will be central to our new strategic plan.
"This builds on our competitive strengths, endowments and anticipated key market trends, with further details to be announced in 1Q25," he said in a statement.
In the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2024, CIMB reported a net profit of RM2.03bil, up from RM1.85bil in the year-ago quarter, translating to an earnings per share of 18.98 sen aginst 17.32 sen previously.
The group reported revenue of RM5.74bil, up from RM5.31bil in the comparative quarter.
Over the three cumulative quarters, CIMB registered a net profit of RM5.93bil on revenue of RM16.97bil, against net profit of RM5.27bil and revenue of RM15.64bil in 9MFY23.
The results led to a strong improvement in the annualised return on average equity (ROE) at 11.7% from 10.7% recorded in the previous nine months ended Sept 30, 2023, it said.
Accordingly, 9MFY24 net interest income (NII) increased 6% y-o-y driven by asset growth while non-interest income (NOII) grew 14.4% y-o-y to RM5.39bil on the back of stronger fees, treasury client sales and trading income.
It said its banking book net interest margin (NIM) rose for a third straight quarter to 2.75%.
"However, with the global macroeconomic backdrop and typical year-end seasonality of higher competition for liquidity, the group expects NIM to normalise and see some pressure in 4Q24," it added.
On costs, the group said there was a 40 basis points y-o-y improvement in cost-to-income ratio to 45.9%
CIMB's total gross loans grew 4.3% y-o-y while deposits rose marginally y-o-y.
Total current account saving account (Casa) balances expanded 4.5% y-o-y, increasing the Casa ratio to 42% as at September 2024.
