KUALA LUMPUR – CIMB Group Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the financial year ended December 31, 2022 (FY2022) jumped to RM5.44 billion from RM4.30 billion in FY2021.
Revenue increased to RM19.84 billion from RM19.51 billion a year ago.
Group chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad told a media conference that the group registered a strong financial performance with core net profit increasing by 33.5% to RM6.21 billion.
This translated to core earnings per share (EPS) of 59.5 sen with core annualised return on average equity (ROE) improving to 10.2% from 8.1% recorded in the previous financial year.
“The strong performance was driven by stronger operating income from robust loan growth and net interest margin (NIM) expansion, stringent cost management, and lower provisions from prudent risk management, recoveries, and portfolio de-risking.
“FY2022 core operating income rose 8% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM19.84 billion, with net interest income (NII) growth of 8.6%, driven by strong loan growth and improved NIM.
“Core non-interest income (NOII) also strengthened, growing by 6% y-o-y to RM4.68 billion from stronger fee income and higher asset recoveries,” he said.
CIMB’s total gross loan growth momentum continued, rising 7.7% y-o-y, driven by stronger demand across key markets and segments, whilst total deposits grew by 4.6%.
However, total current account savings account deposits (CASA) contracted slightly by 1.8%, leading to a CASA ratio of 39.9% as of December 2022.
Abdul Rahman said accordingly, CIMB group’s FY2022 performance exceeded targets across all profitability metrics, including ROE and cost-income ratio (CIR) and it continues to be well capitalised as its Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio remained strong at 14.5% as at December 2022, exceeding its target.
“The strong performance is a testament to the progress made under our mid-term Forward23+ strategic plan, where we have been reshaping our portfolio and making focused investments into profitable areas.
“We achieved meaningful profit growth in our consumer, commercial, wholesale, digital assets, and group funding segments, as well as our key markets of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand,” he noted.
Going into 2023, he said the group anticipates continuing macroeconomic uncertainty, underpinned by the elevated interest rate environment and intensified competition for deposits.
He said the group expects the loan growth for Malaysia to moderate to 5 to 6% this year.
He said the group will continue to focus on growing targeted segments, maintaining cost discipline and managing risk prudently as it continues to support its customers and clients across Asean.
“We will also leverage the growing interest and demand among clients for sustainable and Islamic finance solutions, areas in which CIMB has built a strong track record having pioneered various landmark transactions and innovative offerings over the past few years.
“In addition, we will continue to ramp up investments into technology and operations, with a planned expenditure of up to RM1 billion in 2023 to further digitise as well as enhance our digital capabilities and operational resiliency,” he said.
On the banking group’s gross impaired loans (GIL) ratio, he said it was showing improvement at the group and Malaysia levels.
“Going forward, we do expect GIL to remain broadly stable at the group level to be around the 3 to 3.5% and similarly for Malaysia we do expect that to remain broadly stable in 2023 around 2 to 2.2%,” he added. – Bernama, February 28, 2023
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