KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — PT Bank Maybank Indonesia Tbk’s (Maybank Indonesia) profit after tax and minority interests (PATAMI) for the financial year ended December 31, 2021 (FY 2021), rose 29.9 per cent to 1.64 trillion rupiah (1 million rupiah = RM291) from 1.27 trillion rupiah in the previous year.

In a statement today, the Maybank group said the improved PATAMI was due to lower provisions, declining cost of funds and overhead costs, as well as a strong performance from the Shariah banking unit, as gradual economic recovery in Indonesia took place amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, net interest income (NII) decreased by two per cent to 7.12 trillion rupiah in December 2021 from 7.26 trillion rupiah in the previous year, impacted by lower loan growth and a decreasing trend in loan yield, in line with the reduction in Bank Indonesia rates and ongoing restructuring of customers’ loans impacted by the pandemic.

However, Maybank said, net interest margin rose by 14 basis points to 4.7 per cent in December 2021, attributed to the improvements in the cost of funds and healthy growth of the current account savings account.

Maybank Indonesia’s fee-based income declined 12.1 per cent to 2.09 trillion rupiah in the period under review from 2.38 trillion rupiah in the previous year, primarily due to declining global markets-related fees, it said.

"However, the bank was able to maintain the growth momentum and strengthen its retail-related income such as bancassurance, which grew by 26.9 per cent to 201 billion rupiah in December 2021 from 158 billion rupiah in the previous year.

"Despite the squeeze in the bank’s NII and lower fee-based income, the net profit grew by almost 30 per cent as provisioning costs tapered due to pre-emptive provisioning, which was made in previous years along with well-contained overhead costs,” it shared.

Maybank Indonesia had taken conservative measures since 2020 to set aside provisions for accounts, across all business segments, impacted by the challenging economic environment and also continued its efforts to assist customers facing challenges and focused on credit restructuring to safeguard asset quality.

"This pre-emptive provisioning combined with positive improvement from the restructuring during the year has now contributed to a drop in loan-loss provisions by 25.8 per cent to 1.54 trillion rupiah,” the group said.

The bank’s consolidated non-performing loans (NPL) ratio stood at 3.7 per cent (gross) and 2.6 per cent (net) in December 2021 from four per cent (gross) and 2.5 per cent (net) in December 2020, supported by lower NPL balances, which declined by 10.8 per cent.

According to Maybank, the Indonesian operation maintained a prudent banking approach and kept its risk posture at a healthy level to ensure asset quality remained sound.

Maybank Indonesia president director Taswin Zakaria said 2021 remained a challenging year for the bank, given the second wave of Covid-19.

"Nevertheless, government campaigns on vaccination programme and implementation of health protocols helped to speed up the recovery towards the last quarter of 2021. We are optimistic that public optimism and economic recovery momentum will continue in 2022, although challenges remain.

"Amidst the uncertainties, we remain prudent in running our banking business to maintain the bank’s fundamentals and at the same time, we look forward to optimising our acquisition efforts across our businesses by strengthening productivity and collaboration among various banking services, to deliver value for customers, as reflected in our mission, Humanising Financial Services,” he said.

Meanwhile, Maybank Indonesia president commissioner Datuk Seri Abdul Farid Alias commented that it had resumed its growth phase, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2021, which demonstrated its ability to grow even in the midst of the pandemic.

"Even though uncertainties still remain, we are optimistic that Maybank Indonesia will be able to navigate the challenges through prudent banking approach in growing asset and liquidity, supported by sound risk management.

"Maybank Indonesia will continue to innovate and provide customer-centric financial solutions based on data and digital propositions, in our efforts to help the economy grow and expand our services to the community,” he added. — Bernama