Group chairman Teh says the group will remain vigilant to market uncertainties and challenges and will continue to build its resilience.
PETALING JAYA: Banking giant Public Bank Bhd
is optimistic that the Malaysian banking system would remain resilient heading into 2023, supported by adequate levels of liquidity and healthy capital buffers, on the back of a local economy that is underpinned by both domestic and external demand.
The nation’s third-largest lender in terms of assets, while acknowledging the continued presence of heightened financial market volatility due to monetary policy tightening in the United States, slowdown in China, inflationary pressure and geopolitical tensions, said global growth would be supported by the reopening of most economies and international borders.
Releasing its financial results to Bursa Malaysia yesterday for the third quarter ended Sept 30, Public Bank said it posted a 16.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in net profit to RM1.59bil, from the RM1.36bil achieved in the corresponding quarter of 2021.
Revenue increased by 14.4% y-o-y to RM5.5bil.
“The improved performance for the quarter y-o-y was mainly due to higher net interest income of RM338.1mil, which saw a growth of 16.5%, and lower loan impairment allowance of RM228.5mil.
“These were partially offset by higher other operating expenses of RM101.5mil. The higher net interest income was partly attributable to loan growth achieved and the positive effect of overnight policy rate (OPR) hikes,” it said.
For the nine months ended Sept 30, net profit also edged up by 3% y-o-y to RM4.41bil compared with the first three quarters of last year when the bank registered a cumulative net profit of RM4.28bil, as a result of a 4% rise in its turnover for the corresponding period to RM15.4bil.
Group chairman Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow noted that for the first nine months of 2022, the bank’s loans and deposits continued to achieve an annualised growth of 5.8% and 4.5%, respectively.
“Backed by its strong fundamentals and prudent management, we sustained a resilient net return of equity of 12.4% and efficient cost-to-income ratio of 32.6%.
“Gross impaired loans ratio remained strong at 0.3%, despite the expiry of the Pemulih repayment assistance programme,” he added.
Aside from an increase in net interest income, which was positively effected by the OPR hike of 75 basis points, it also attributed the net profit increase to growth in loans.
However, these were mitigated by higher operating expenses of RM190.7mil, lower net fee and commission income of RM180mil, a decrease of 11.1% y-o-y, and a 48.9% drop in investment income to RM65.5mil compared to the first three quarters of 2021.
Earnings per share also went up by 16.8% y-o-y to 8.19 sen for the quarter ended Sept 30, while also nudging up 3% cumulatively for the first nine months of the year to 22.7 sen, compared to the corresponding period of 2021.
Net earnings, meanwhile, rose quarter-on-quarter by 12.2% from the RM1.42bil Public Bank chalked up for the quarter ended June 30.
Moving forward, Teh said the group will remain vigilant to market uncertainties and challenges and will continue to build resilience by maintaining a healthy capital position, preserving asset quality, as well as further strengthening its risk management capabilities and upholding sound corporate governance practices.
“As the group continues to leverage on its core banking business to grow its business, it will remain agile in strategy implementation to capture any opportunities arising from the economic recovery and evolving business landscape,” he said.
