KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 — Co-opbank Pertama Bhd (CBP) is taking a cautious stance in managing its asset classes and portfolios to stay sustainable.
Chief executive officer Khairil Anuar Mohammad Anuar said although its balance sheet remains healthy and steady, the cooperative bank is currently not risking an aggressive approach to avoid any fallback in the coming years. “We are currently taking a safe and careful approach although we see that the economy is picking up. “One of the ways is to look into diversifying our assets, meaning not just on existing products such as personal, retail and Ar-Rahnu financing business, but also looking into hire purchase, micro-financing and home financing,” he said at CBP’s Aidilfitri open house here, today.
He said, for existing products such as housing loans, CBP has forged partnerships with almost 10 housing developers to facilitate the end-financing process. Meanwhile, Khairil Anuar said the bank’s cumulative average growth is between 20 per cent and 25 per cent annually while its asset size has grown to about RM6.8 billion.
On the impact of the rise in Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to two per cent recently, he said, it is not expected to have a sudden negative impact on individual and retail customers. “As we have priced our products based on customers’ risk rating and floating rate, hence, we do not see any impact on the bank because we have taken into consideration the ability and capability of customers to pay back.
“When the economy improves, so will the wellbeing of customers. Therefore, by default, it should be okay in terms of their commitment to financing,” he added. Besides that, Khairil Anuar said there will also be slightly higher returns from deposits due to the competitive rates in line with the rise in OPR. — Bernama
