Bangkok Bank profit up 7% to $1.11b in 2018

Non-interest income rose 9.1%.

Reuters reports that Thailand’s Bangkok Bank (BBL) full-year net profit rose 7% YoY to $1.11b (THB35.3b) in 2018 on the back of higher net interest income and fee income. 

Net interest income grew 7.1%, while loans grew 4% for the full-year period.

Also read: Thai banks weather digital fee waiver as 2018 earnings rise 8.2% to $6.69b

The Thai lender also weathered through the volatile market conditions as non-interest income, which is composed of wealth management, insurance and trading income, rose 9.1% to $1.57b (THB50b).

Moreover, BBL was able to dent its bad loan ratio from 3.9% to 3.4% in 2018 even as most of its commercial peers saw theirs tick up. 

“Despite the exemption of transaction fees via digital channels, net fees and service income were close to the level of the previous year due to good growth in fee income from bancassurance and mutual funds,” the bank said in a statement.

Here’s more from Reuters: