KUALA LUMPUR: Good income growth underpinned by improved net interest margin (NIM) drove AMMB Holdings Bhd
's (AmBank) performance in the first quarter of its 2026 financial year (1QFY26), said group CEO Jamie Ling as he announced the bank's latest quarterly results.
"Capital position strengthened further and liquidity remains ample. Overall, a satisfactory first quarter performance, delivered in more volatile market conditions."
In his outlook for the coming year, Ling acknowledged the bank is managing a period of turbulence but was optimistic over the first quarter result.
"The overnight policy rate reduction will have some impact on NIM in the near term.
"As our economy adjusts to the 19% tariff imposed on most Malaysian exports to the US, we are confident that economic growth will remain resilient," he added.
AmBank posted a net profit of RM516.18mil in 1QFY26, which was higher than RM500.2mil in the year-ago quarter, bringing earnings per share to 15.64 sen from 15.13 sen in the comparative quarter.
It reported revenue of RM1.29bil in 1QFY26, also improved over RM1.18bil in 1QFY25.
Quarterly net interest income (NII) was up 7.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM924.7mil as NIM expanded 12 basis points to 2.01%.
The bank said loans and financing grew 4.2% y-o-y with business banking and wholesale banking loans growing 12.2% an 10% y-o-y respectively.
Meanwhile, non-interest income (NoII) increased 15.2% y-o-y to RM366mil due mainly to higher trading gains in securities from group treasury markets as well as higher fee income from corporate banking and business banking.
The bank's overall expenses was 8.3% higher y-o-y to RM563.9mil due to higher personnel costs, although the good income growth raised cost-to-income to 43.7% from 44.2% in the previous comparative quarter.
On its balance sheet, total gross loans, advances and financing fell a marginal 0.5% year-to-date (YTD) to RM138.2bil, mainly due to repayment of wholesale banking loans.
Total customer deposits fell 2.5% YTD to RM138bil. The bank's time deposits grew 0.6% YTD to RM91.1bil while current account savings account (Casa) fell 8.1% YTD to RM46.9bil for a Casa mix of 34% as compared to 36% in FY25.
