KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): PT Maybank Indonesia Tbk said its net profit for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 (FY17) was slightly lower at IDR1.8 trillion (RM514.26 million) compared with IDR1.9 trillion in FY16.

Its operating income before provision grew 4% and revenue was up 5%, amid better operational efficiency following its Strategic Cost Management Programme, improvement in fee-based income, and stronger growth in global banking, syariah banking and its subsidiaries.

The bank said the syariah banking segment posted a 35.3% increase in net profit to IDR631 billion, with the segment’s total assets growing 16.7% to IDR27.1 trillion, accounting for 15.7% of the bank’s total assets.

Total financing grew 48% from IDR20.7 trillion, while total deposits grew 52.6% to IDR16.7 trillion. Asset quality also improved, as non-performing financing (NPF) stood lower at 3% versus 4.4% a year earlier.

Loans growth was moderate at 3%, growing to IDR125.4 trillion. Global banking loans rose 17% to IDR52.6 trillion, while community financial services non-retail loans grew 2% to IDR52.6 trillion.

Retail banking loans contracted 4.1% to IDR42.7 trillion in FY17, which was attributed to the slowdown in the consumer sector.

Maybank Indonesia’s current and savings account (CASA) ratio reached 40% as total customer deposits expanded to IDR121.3 trillion from IDR118.9 trillion a year earlier, which the bank said was due to its focus on building transactional banking and cash management services while also leveraging on its electronic channels, such as Maybank2U.

Its loan-to-deposit ratio remained healthy at 88.1% while the liquidity coverage ratio stood at 144.1%, exceeding the mandatory minimum of 90%.

Net interest income grew 3.7% to IDR7.7 trillion in FY17, versus IDR7.4 trillion in the previous year. Net interest margin saw slight improvement to 5.2% from 5.1% despite the pressure on loan yields.

The bank’s fee-based income rose 8% year-on-year to IDR2.7 trillion, driven by fees from bancassurance, treasury-related fees, retail administration, loan administration, loan recovery, subsidiaries and other services provided by the bank.

Maybank Indonesia’s subsidiaries performed well during the year, as PT Wahana Ottomitra Multiartha Tbk’s pre-tax profit surged to IDR237 billion from IDR30 billion in FY16, attributed to growth in multipurpose financing.

Maybank Indonesia president director Taswin Zakaria said FY17 was tough, but the group managed to increase income from other sources including through transactional fees and increased operational efficiency.

“Our strategy is to continue introducing fee generation products which are less affected by loan volume and competition dynamics to ensure sustainable growth in fee income.

“This is the right time for us to internally transform and realign our network, infrastructure, strategic initiatives, and make some major internal changes to ensure that our core foundations are strengthened and ready for the expected increase in 2H2019 and beyond,” he said.