KUALA LUMPUR (July 31): AMMB Holdings Bhd (AmBank) remains cautious on the Malaysian banking industry, amid challenges including the impact of the US-China trade war on the world economy, group chief executive officer Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir said today.
"I think [having a] cautious view is certainly right. But it has been a positive start for us," Sulaiman told reporters after AmBank's annual general meeting and extraordinary general meeting here today.
Despite a cautious tone on the banking sector, Sulaiman said AmBank is maintaining its loan growth target for financial year ending March 31, 2020 (FY20).
On May 28 this year, theedgemarkets.com reported that AmBank was expecting to maintain loan growth of 6% for FY20, as management wanted to grow the group's declining automotive loans while ensuring growth momentum is sustained for other loans.
Sulaiman was quoted as saying at a media briefing then that for FY19, AmBank achieved its targeted loan growth of 6% at RM101.8 billion, the first time the group's loan surpassed the RM100 billion mark.
Today, Sulaiman also elaborated on AmBank's planned estimated RM20 billion loan disbursement to small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in the next three years.
He said AmBank expects a net interest margin of 2.5% from the SME loan disbursement.