KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 — CIMB Holdings Berhad is targeting a loan growth of 6 per cent for 2018, surpassing the industry target growth of 4 to 5 per cent.
Its group chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said the figure was based on the sound fundamentals of the nation’s economy.
“We see strong loan growth in all segments including consumer and wholesale,” said Zafrul at the briefing after the company’s 61st annual general meeting today.
Zafrul also attributed CIMB's strong performance to the T18 initiative which was introduced in 2014 to improve the overall performance of the bank’s profitability.
He said CIMB is now in the midst of formulating a new mid-term plan with the expiry of T18 at the end of 2018.
Zafrul also said that the banking group was looking at ways to reduce its cost-to-income ratio to below 50 per cent as it stood at 51.4 per cent at the end of 2017.
When asked if there would be any staff rationalisation to reduce the cost-to-income ratio, Zafrul said the banking group will focus on growing income without reducing staff.
CIMB had earlier introduced a fee waiver for transfers on its ‘Cimb Clicks’ online and mobile platforms. This was in line with Bank Negara’s call to promote cashless transactions.
Zafrul said that the revenue lost from the waiver was negligible and that CIMB was implementing it to reduce cost and heed the central bank’s agenda.
