AFTER surviving Indonesia’s ban against expansion of Malaysian banks in 2015, one of the biggest Malaysian banks operating in Indonesia also survived the Covid-19 pandemic.
PT Bank Maybank Indonesia Tbk reported a 7% increase in its net profit to 809.7 billion rupiah (about RM234.81 mil) for its first half ended June 30, 2020 (1H20) compared to last year’s 1.97 trillion rupiah (about RM214.9 mil) in 1H19.
According to a statement released on August 2, 2020, the rise of net profit was attributed to improvements in fee-based income and sustained strategic cost management, despite significant market volatility and disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The bank reported growth of 1.4% in fee-based income to 1.2 trillion rupiah in June 2020,” Maybank Indonesia said in the statement.
Its overhead costs were managed effectively as it only declined by 4.6% to 3 trillion rupiah, owing to the continued cost-management initiatives across business lines and support units coupled with reduction in general.
Reduced administration costs due to the implementation of work-from-home arrangements during the pandemic also played a part in the minor decline.
However, the bank’s total loans dipped 14.6% to 115.7 trillion rupiah compared to June last year, which is understandably in line with the current market conditions, where the industry is facing a slowdown in loan growth.
The bank also added that it continued to maintain its conservative stance and align its portfolio growth with its risk posture, which has been further tightened given the current global economic conditions. – Sept 1, 2020
