KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd has revised its loan growth target to seven per cent this year from the 13 per cent initial target it set this year.
Chief executive officer Khairul Kamaruddin said the bank, however, remains optimistic of performing better than the industry’s growth of about three per cent as at July this year.
“Just like any other bank, the modification loss due to the automatic loan moratorium had impacted our bottom line performance quite significantly.
“As a small bank with most of our financing based on fixed rates, the severity of the impact is higher,” he told reporters after the launch of Bank Muamalat Jariah Fund here today.
However, he noted, the bank expects growth to be contributed mainly by the retail segment which includes home financing, personal loans and vehicle financing.
For the business segment, he said, the bank sees moderating growth but the small and medium enterprises special relief fund would continue to support the growth of this segment.
Khairul said Bank Muamalat’s loan book currently stands at around RM16 billion, with about RM10-11 billion contributed by the retail segment and the balance by corporate clients.
Commenting on the impact of the pandemic on Islamic banks as against conventional banks, he said it is about the same for each.
On the loan moratorium which ends on Sept 30, he said the bank has identified about 13,000 vulnerable customers comprising about 30 per cent of its total clients, adding it has contacted all of them.
Most of the bank’s customers come from the government sector which has not been affected by salary deductions or job losses, he said, noting that 8,000 to 9,000 of the contacted customers have given a positive response while about five per cent have applied for further assistance.
“Based on our engagements, the clients can be separated into several categories — those who do not need assistance are about 10 per cent, while those who had applied number less than a thousand and the approval rate was about 80 per cent,” he said.
He added the bank is now stepping up its efforts to ensure that by the end of September it could successfully restructure and grant a targeted moratorium extension to customers in need. — Bernama
