Malaysia banks' loan growth climbs to 9.3% in November

Consumer loan growth led the pack.

Malaysian banks' November loan growth of 9.3% y-y was led by consumer loan growth of 11% -- albeit slower than the 11.4% at 3Q end -- while business loan growth was 7.5% y-y, vs. 6.1% at 3Q end).

According to a research note from Nomura, consumer loan growth has been decelerating since the beginning of the year with auto loan growth declining to 3.7% (vs. 6.9% y-y in FY13) and residential mortgages declining to 13.2% y-y (vs. 13.5% y-y in FY13).

Overall m-m loan growth of 0.8% was driven by general commerce (0.8% m-m) and financing, insurance/business services related loan growth (0.9% m-m).

Building and construction-related loan growth moderated to 0.2% m-m while manufacturing loan growth declined 0.3% m-m. Overall both business and consumer loans increased 0.8% m-m in November.

Here's more from Nomura:

System NPL levels declined in November. Gross NPLs remained stable at 1.71% of total loans (vs. 1.84% in Dec-13).

Residential loans related NPLs continued to improve to 1.32% (Dec-13: 1.5%) while car loan NPLs remained stable at 1.3%.

Business loan NPL levels increased marginally to 2.54% (vs. 2.44% in Oct). Loan loss coverage for the system was 103% in November (Dec-13: 100%).

Deposit growth at 7.8% y-y in November. System deposit growth continues to improve to 7.8% y-y (from 6.5% in Oct, still down from the 8.5% y-y growth in CY13), 5.6% YTD, with LDR increasing to 82% (vs. 80% at Dec-13). CASA deposit growth was a moderate 4% y-y, accounting for 25% of total deposits.

Lending yields up 11bps since June. Average lending rates for Malaysian banks declined 7bps since 3Q (overall were up 11bps to 4.65% since the 25bps Overnight Policy Rate hike in July), while three-month TD rates have increased 1bps during the same period.