KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — RHB Bank Bhd expects its loan growth to be between 4.0 per cent and 5.0 per cent in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2022 (FY22) from 6.7 per cent last year, mainly from the small and medium enterprise (SME) retail and commercial segments.

The bank expects its gross impaired loan ratio to be below 1.7 per cent in FY22.

RHB Banking Group officer-in-charge and principal officer Mohd Rashid Mohamad said the momentum of economic activities has continued to pick up this year which will further support the bank moving forward. 

"Loan growth from the perspective of large corporates, we believe large corporates will mostly go into securities or capital markets and raise funds there. There is ample liquidity there and the pricing is quite attractive.

"In fact, we see a lot more activities coming in the last couple of months and the pipeline is also showing a very positive trend on corporate fundraising in the capital market,” he told reporters after announcing the group’s financial performance ended Dec 31, 2021 (FY21) held virtually today.

Also present were RHB Banking Group chief financial officer Nik Rizal Kamil and managing director of group community banking Jeffrey Ng. 

The bank also expects the overnight policy rate (OPR) to gradually normalise towards the later part of this year and pose minimal impact to RHB Bank, according to Mohd Rashid. 

The bank sees its net interest margin (NIM) moderating to 2.11 per cent this year, mainly due to the repricing of most fixed deposits that had been completed in the first half of 2021.

RHB would also be focusing on growing its current account savings account (Casa) this year.

"We want to maintain our composition (of Casa) of 30 per cent of total deposits,” said Mohd Rashid.

The group sees its return on equity (ROE) for FY22 to be lower as it has already priced in the prosperity tax imposed on the bank.

"If we normalised that, our target is 10 per cent ROE for FY22. (But) with the prosperity tax impact, it will be 8.5 per cent. That is how it will impact our bottom line at the end of the day,” he added. — Bernama