KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd posted net profit of RM1.81bil in the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 on revenue of RM12.97bil as it undertook prudent measures amid the challenging operating environment.Southeast Asia's fourth largest bank by assets announced on Thursday the net profit was down 3.3% from the RM1.87bil a year ago.This was due to higher allowance of RM604mil for impairment losses on loans, advances,financing and other debts compared with RM509.31mil a year ago. It also set aside RM24.61mil as allowance for impairment losses on financial investments compared with a writeback of RM14.87mil a year ago.On its revenue, Maybank recorded a 12.6% increase to RM12.97bil from RM11.51bil a year ago. However, this was partly offset by a marginal dip in net fee based income to RM1.55bil from RM1.58bil a year ago. Overall group loans growth was 4.8% in the first quarter.As for gross deposits, they expanded by 4.8% on-year despite intense competition. Taking the lead was its Singapore operations at 6.6%, Indonesia 6.4% and Malaysia at 2.2%.This led to an improvement in the loan-to-deposit ratio of 92.4% from 92.7% in December 2018.

Source: thestar May 30, 2019 05:31 UTC