PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) posted a net loss of RM73.25 million for the first quarter ended March 31, against a net profit of RM83.83 million in the same quarter of the previous year, following a high allowance for impairment charges on loans, financing and advances due to an increase in Stage 2 and Stage 3 financing during the quarter.
Revenue for the period improved by 2% to RM741.41 million from RM727.22 million previously, contributed by a higher fixed income profit and gain from sale of investment securities.
According to the group’s Bursa Malaysia disclosure, its cost to income ratio for the quarter increased to 30.3% compared with 26.3% in first quarter 2019 on the back of higher personnel cost in line with an increase in the number of staff.
The group’s assets grew by 7.13% year on year to RM50.81 billion from RM47.43 billion, contributed by growth in financial investments.
In regard to its result, MBSB’s president and CEO, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaini Othman, commented that despite the adversity faced during the quarter, the group aims to aggressively preserve the quality of the existing assets and increase its recovery efforts.
He acknowledged that the operating environment will get tougher amid the challenges that are emerging but it will continue to be resilient.
“We have identified the key risk areas that can impact the future asset quality and have also immediately revised our key strategies to ensure there is sustainable revenue,” he said in a press release.
“We will be optimising the great potentials of technology by accelerating our efforts in rolling out online financing applications for retail customers as well as providing greater convenience to Trade and SME Financing customers.”
