Maybank's Q1 net profit slides 16% as higher provisions bite

Corporate banking loans deteriorated.

Southeast Asia's fourth-largest bank by assets reported a net profit of MYR1.43 billion for the first quarter, down by 16% compared to RM1.70 billion in the same period last year.

The decline came despite an 8.1% increase in net operating income. Maybank said that its bottomline was impacted by higher provisioning for impaired corporate loans.

The group's impaired loans ratio rose to 1.64% in March compared with 1.38% in December. Net impairment losses for the quarter totalled MYR878.4 million from MYR521.9 million in the preceding quarter.

Net impairment losses for the quarter totalled MYR878.4 million from MYR521.9 million in the preceding quarter.

The increase in provisioning was primarily owing to the rise in number of corporate loans undergoing restructuring and rescheduling of their repayment to better match their projected cash flows arising from the subdued operating environment