KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — The Malaysia Building Society Berhad (MBSB) Group today announced that its profit after tax for the financial year ending December 31, 2018 had a significant jump of RM225.27 million or 54.01 per cent from the previous financial year’s RM417.13 million to RM642.40 million.

Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaini Othman, MBSB’s Group President and Chief Executive Officer, said 2018 was an “eventful year” for the group as it had completed the successful acquisition of the Asian Finance Bank Berhad on February 7, 2018.

“We had only merged the business and operations of the two entities on 2 April 2018. From then on, we began implementing our plans to build up the core banking capabilities for the new merged entity,” he said in a statement today.

Other than the merger, 2018 was also a year of awards for MBSB as it gained industry recognition by winning the Sustainable Bank Award from Asia Pacific CSR Council, The League Excellence Award (I-Lead) by Islamic Banking and Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM) and the Best Sukuk Deal Award In Southeast Asia by Alpha Southeast Asia.

Ahmad Zaini also said that 95 per cent of the group’s income in 2018 came from its existing lines of business while the remaining came from new offerings.

“This was within our expectations as we had focused our time and resources significantly on building the banking infrastructure to enable us to roll out new capabilities such as Corporate and Retail Internet Banking, SWIFT and RENTAS, Cash Recycling Machine/ATM, and trade finance.

“Concurrently, we grew the existing core business to ensure growth in financing as well as fee based income,” he added.

As for the group’s revenue, MBSB said its annual revenue for the 2018 financial year at RM3.15 billion was consistent with the previous RM3.26 billion recorded in the preceding year, while the slightly lower quarterly revenue of RM730.35 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 was consistent with the RM786.40 million recorded in the third quarter of 2018.

MBSB’s gross financing and loans went up by 2.48 per cent from RM34.20 billion in the 2017 financial year to RM35.17 billion in the 2018 financial year, which was consistent with the RM35.85 billion recorded in the third quarter.

MBSB’s total assets meanwhile stood at RM45.42 billion at the end of the 2018 financial year, which is also consistent with the RM46.40 billion recorded in the third quarter of 2018 and an increase from the RM44.81 billion in the 2017 financial year.

When describing the outlook for MBSB this year, Ahmad Zaini expected the group to expand its reach while also maintaining measures to remain competitive.

“We do take cognizant of the challenges this year, economic and other factors but we shall keep to the technology transformation plans as these are key to ensuring our ability to compete in the industry. With new capabilities and channels, we shall be able to extend our market reach especially in the SME segment through products such as trade finance.

“Greater emphasis shall also be placed on fee income to be attributed from the retail segment,” he said.