KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) is maintaining its headline key performance indicators (KPI) for its current financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), amid a challenging market environment.

The banking group's guidance for its return on equity (ROE) is between 13% and 14%, the same as its FY14 guidance.

Maybank group president and CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said this would depend on the level of market activity, going forward.

"It (ROE) could fall somewhere between that range, depending on market activity and the market can be quite fickle," he told reporters at Maybank's FY14 financial results briefing this afternoon.

However, Maybank has lowered its group loans and group deposits growth forcast for FY15 to between 9% and 10%, compared with 13% and 10%-12% respectively in its FY14 guidance.

As for the group's strategy going forward, Abdul Farid said the focus for 2015 would be to strengthen revenue growth, focusing on group wide productivity, deploying its capital efficient strategy and continuing its international market performance.

He also said the group is confident of starting branch operations in Myanmar this year, and is eyeing opportunities to enter the Thailand market as well.