KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 — Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhd (Bank Rakyat) recorded a net profit of RM1.24 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2018 (FY18).
The bank said the strong performance was achieved despite challenges to the group’s net profit margin, as well as the implementation of the Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS) 9 new provisioning standard.
“For FY18, the group managed to maintain a low cost-to-income ratio (CIR) at 34.3 per cent, outpacing the domestic banking industry’s CIR of 44.8 per cent,” it said in a statement today.
Bank Rakyat said income from financing activities slightly increased by 0.2 per cent to RM5.12 billion from RM5.11 billion previously despite the softening of the industry’s financing growth and intense market competition.
It said the group’s assets grew 1.4 per cent or RM1.44 billion to RM106.89 billion compared with RM105.45 billion previously.
“This was driven by moderate growth in treasury assets of 8.3 per cent or RM2.54 billion to RM33.23 billion in line with the regulatory requirement to hold sufficient level of high quality liquid assets (HQLA),” it said.
Bank Rakyat said its gross financing balance for FY18 stood at RM70.40 billion compared with RM70.63 billion previously and the group continued to benefit from the diversification of portfolios, mainly from home, car and business financing.
Home financing grew 12.8 per cent to RM5.92 billion from RM5.25 billion in FY17, while car financing grew 1.3 per cent to RM2.77 billion compared with RM2.73 billion previously.
Meanwhile, business financing, especially in the cooperative segment grew 13.3 per cent to RM2.22 billion from RM1.96 billion previously.
“As part of the diversification on other portfolios, personal financing stood at RM54.88 billion, a slight decline of 2.0 per cent, in line with the group’s long-term strategy to reduce overall dependency on personal financing,” it said.
Bank Rakyat said deposits stood at RM82.74 billion last year, a slight decline from RM83.24 billion in 2017 in line with the softening of the industry’s financing growth.
“Nevertheless, current account and savings account (CASA) balances improved significantly at 14.5 per cent or RM0.73 billion to RM5.73 billion for the year, in tandem with the group’s strategy to increase its CASA,” it added— Bernama
