PETALING JAYA: AMMB Holdings Bhd
(AmBank) is targeting to achieve a loan growth of 4% for its financial year ending March 31, 2026 (FY26), in line with the industry’s growth.
Group chief executive officer Jamie Ling said this would be supported by the bank’s business banking and wholesale banking divisions. Loan growth in the group’s retail segment is expected to remain flat this year.
“In FY25, we delivered a loan growth of 4% year-on-year (y-o-y). Loan growth over three years grew by 16% y-o-y, against the industry’s loan growth of 16%. Hence, we have kept pace with market growth for over three years.
“In the areas that we would like to grow, we have done so in business banking, which saw a loan growth of 12% y-o-y.
“Further, wholesale banking recorded a loan growth of 7% y-o-y,” he told the media following AmBank’s AGM yesterday.
Ling added the group has slowed down its loan growth in retail in order to “build a better quality business, and to improve the returns on that business”. Retail loans declined by 2% y-o-y in FY25.
“We are not growing loans for the sake of market share. We are focused on improving returns. We also have to manage our risk profiles better,” he said.
In the first quarter of 2026 (1Q26), loans and financing grew 4.2% y-o-y, with business banking and wholesale banking loans growth of 12.2% and 10% y-o-y, respectively.
Ling said while AmBank is expecting to see compression in its net interest margin (NIM) due to the easing of monetary policy, it will “not be that much”, by about three to four basis points (bps) to 1.96% to 1.97% from 2.01% currently.
In the recent July 2025 Monetary Policy Committee meeting, Bank Negara Malaysia announced a 25 bps overnight policy rate or OPR cut to 2.75%.
“A lot of effort was put in to improve our cost of funding. As we grew more slowly in the retail segment, it allowed us to price out deposits that are costly.
“Hence, this really drove margin improvements to 2.01% currently.
“This is the highest margin that we have ever achieved since I joined the bank,” he noted, adding that it will be considered as peak margins, given that the OPR cut will likely have some negative impact on its margins.
Ling said the group is also looking to surpass its record net profit of RM2bil last year.
“We want to beat last year’s record. That is the ambition. In 1Q26, the group’s net profit rose by 3.2% y-o-y to RM516.2mil.
“Hence, we are on track to do so. Despite all the headwinds, I think the markets also have opportunities,” he said.
Last year, AmBank unveiled its Winning Together (WT29) strategy, which kicked off in FY25.
The targets outlined in the plan are expected to be achieved by the end of FY29.
Some of the group’s goals under the WT29 strategy includes improving its dividend payout ratio to 50% to 60%, from 40% in FY24; lower its cost-to-income ratio to 40% from 44.2%; and generate a return on assets (ROA) of 1.1% from 0.97%, which translates into a return on equity (ROE) of 11% to 12% (from 10% at present).
In achieving its ROA and ROE targets, Ling reiterated that, one of the key focus areas for revenue growth, is moving to small and medium enterprises and mid-level corporates to lead lending growth in business banking.
“Another pillar of our higher-return business is wealth management.
“Last year, the group introduced a more focused product and segment integration into global wealth management. This is fee-based income, and therefore higher returns, to complement the need for us to have a more affluent customer base,” he said.
In terms of expenses, Ling said it is not about freezing hiring and pay raises, as such measures are unsustainable. Instead, the group is focused on investing in technology, machine learning and cloud infrastructure while focusing on operational excellence.
“When we think about cost-to-income, it is not about having no pay rise for the next five years. That is not very sustainable, nor is it very motivating. We still have to invest in the future of banking, so a lot of our technology investment, a lot of machine learning investment, particularly around data foundation before we can even get into artificial intelligence.
“We have to grow revenues faster than costs, and so manage the cost of inflation by pacing those investments, and at the same time becoming more productive and reducing wastage. This is what we call the operational excellence agenda,” he said.
