This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 19, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Thai Bank PCL, a 94.11% indirectly held subsidiary of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, saw operating income for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 (FY17) rise by a marginal 1.8% to 13.15 billion baht (RM1.61 billion) from 12.93 billion baht the previous year, mainly driven by increases in net interest income and net fee and service income.

In a statement yesterday, CIMB Thai said higher mutual funds, corporate finance and hire-purchase fees resulted in a 18.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise in net fee and service income in FY17.

This helped the group turn a net profit of 384.9 million baht in FY17, compared with a net loss of 629.5 million baht in FY16.

CIMB Thai president and chief executive officer Kittiphun Anutarasoti also attributed the improved performance to a 19.5% y-o-y drop in provisions, but partially offset by other operating expenses, which rose slightly by 2.6% y-o-y.

“[The] net interest margin over earnings assets stood at 3.89% in FY17 compared with 3.77% in FY16 due to better funding cost management,” said CIMB Thai.