KUALA LUMPUR: Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd
, which ended its 2023 financial year with an improved performance, said it is seeing results from its refreshed business strategy.
Via its Acceler8 strategic plan that was rolled out in February, the bank said it is targeting new market segments and business verticals, driving expansion in key economic corridors, as well as driving synergies and value creation through strategic partnerships to support customers at every stage of their journey.
“Our refreshed strategy has started to yield results. We continue to invest resources to capitalise on the eight growth opportunities, building on our competitive advantages of speed, service and personalisation.
"We have launched over 30 projects under the eight pillars, focusing on high impact, lower complexity projects, as well as our sustainability initiatives,” said group CEO Kellee Kam in a statement.
In the fourth quarter of its financial year ended March 31, 2023, Alliance Bank posted a net profit of RM130.17mil, representing an earnings per share of 8.41 sen, up from RM103.04mil a year ago.
The bank's revenue also rose to RM468.61mil from RM451.54mil.
For the full financial year, Alliance Bank's net profit was RM677.85mil, an 18.3% increase year-over-year (y-o-y), on revenue of RM1.92bil, which was 2.8% improved over FY22.
The bank declared a second interim dividend of 10 sen per share, which brought the full-year payout to 22 sen per share, representing a 50% total dividend payout ratio.
According to the bank, net interest margin improved 11 basis points (bps) to 2.64%.
Client-based fee income (excluding brokerage) grew to RM284.1mil, attributable to higher wealth management, foreign exchange sales and trade fees.
Cost-to-income ratio was 45.9%.
SME and Consumer Banking loans grew 13.1% and 5.2% y-o-y respectively, contributing to higher overall loans growth momentum at 6.2% y-o-y.
Customer-based funding grew 6.8% y-o-y with fixed deposits increasing 18.6% y-o-y.
The bank said funding is healthy and current account savings account (Casa) ratio stood at 41.9%.
Net credit cost for FY23 improved 16.2bps y-o-y to 31.9bps due to the net release of management overlays.
On capital levels, common Equity Tier-1 ratio was at 14.5%; the Tier-1 capital ratio was 15.3%, and the total capital ratio of the Bank was at 19.4%
The bank also retained a healthy liquidity coverage ratio at 161.9%.
For its FY23 strategic priorities, the bank said new-to-bank customer acquisition grew 58% y-o-y to approximately 89,000 customers, exceeding the 80,000 target by 11%.
Acquisition of dual-relationship business owners increased 72% y-o-y to 8,700.
Digital transactions grew 19% y-o-y as a higher proportion of customers adopted the bank’s mobile and online solutions.
