Malaysia's Leading Banks: Q3 2023 Update

Summary

Malaysian banks entered the second half of 2023 navigating a tightening net interest margin environment, rising funding costs and slowing loan growth, even as the broader economy expanded and the central bank held its policy rate steady. Malaysia's top nine banks — including Maybank, CIMB, Public Bank, RHB, Hong Leong Bank, AMMB, Alliance Bank, Affin Bank and Bank Islam — are tracked across net revenue, net profit, fee income, net interest margin, non-performing loans and cost efficiency during the third quarter.

The drivers behind each bank's results break down from net interest income and non-interest income shifts to one-off items such as subsidiary dividends, tracing how rising funding costs, deposit competition and slowing mortgage and hire-purchase financing growth are squeezing margins across the sector.

Strategic initiatives launched by Malaysia's leading banks during the quarter round out the picture, including green-branch design, cross-border digital payment partnerships, MSME upliftment programs and the rollout of cloud-native digital banking platforms aimed at younger, digitally native customers — offering a view into how incumbents are responding to margin pressure with both efficiency measures and new growth bets.

• Covers net revenue, profitability, fee income, NIM, NPL and cost-efficiency trends
• Profiles green banking, cross-border payments and cloud-native digital banking launches

Can Malaysian banks offset shrinking net interest margins fast enough through fee income and digital innovation?