PETALING JAYA: Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd
, which recorded a year-on-year (y-o-y) decline of 5.9% in net profit to RM253mil for the six months ended June 30, 2025 (1H25) is streamlining its operations by removing redundancies and consolidating resources for greater efficiency.
Bank Islam group chief executive officer, Datuk Mohd Muazzam Mohamed said branch optimisation efforts are being implemented to simplify and strengthen the bank’s market presence, aiming to provide customers with a seamless banking experience across all touchpoints.
“Alongside these measures, Bank Islam has continued to invest strategically in technology, infrastructure, and innovation to future-proof the business,” he said in a statement.
The group said the slight decline in 1H25 profitability was primarily due to higher total overheads, net allowances for impairment and finance costs.
Overheads for the period expanded by 10.6% to RM830.8mil as the group continues to invest in human capital, digital and technology initiatives.
Meanwhile, net allowance for impairment on financing and advances surged by 57.6%, mainly due to higher net new impaired financing.
Accordingly, the financing credit cost increased to 0.35%.
Despite the uptick in new impaired financing, the group maintained strong asset quality, with a gross impaired financing ratio of 1.05% as at end-June 2025, well below the industry average of 1.42%.
Total net income rose 9.9% to RM1.4bil, spurred by an increase in non-fund-based income and strong growth in financing.
The performance translates to an earnings per share (EPS) of 11.16 sen and an annualised net return on equity of 7.1%.
Total capital ratio remained robust at 20.3% as of June 30, demonstrating a strong capital position and continued financial resilience, Bank Islam said.
For the second quarter ended June 30 (2Q25), net profit came in at RM126.68mil, down from RM138.1mil a year ago.
This translates to an EPS of 5.59 sen, compared with 6.09 sen in 2Q24.
