Malaysian banks enjoy lowest bad loans in years

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian banks have the lowest bad loans in at least 17 years. They shouldn’t get used to it. While the lenders’ non-performing ratios are at the lowest levels in data going back to 1998, they’ve begun ticking up and Standard & Poor’s reckons they will keep doing so.

“Loan quality is possibly at a cyclical peak,” said Ivan Tan, an S&P credit analyst in Singapore. “The non performing loan ratio is probably as good as it can get.”