Malaysian banks’ asset quality likely to drop

Outlook 2017: Wong (right) says RAM continues to have a stable outlook on Malaysian banking this year. With her is Lee.

PETALING JAYA: After years of improvement, the asset quality of Malaysian banks could see some deterioration with the banking system’s gross impaired-loan (GIL) ratio expected to touch 1.8% this year, although this figure is still favourable compared with their Asean peers.

Last year, the Malaysian banking system’s GIL ratio stood at 1.6%, slightly higher than that of Singapore at 1% but lower than the Philippines (2%), Thailand (2.8%) and Indonesia (2.9%).