Three banks report high revenue, net profit in Q2

Bangkok Bank, the country’s largest bank by assets, yesterday reported consolidated net profit for the first half of 2013 of Bt19.27 billion, an increase of 13.1 per cent from the same period last year. Net interest income rose by Bt657 million and non-interest income expanded by Bt3.18 billion.

Bangkok Bank president Chartsiri Sophonpanich said in a statement that lending was continuing to grow, driven mainly by the corporate and SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) sectors, which are investing to increase their production capacity or to expand their business.

As of the end of June, lending increased by 3.9 per cent from the end of last year and 8.1 per cent year on year. Non-performing loans (NPLs) stood at 2.4 per cent.

The bank maintained its focus on prudent management and consistent provisioning for reserves. Provisions on loans and debt securities for the first half were Bt5.12 billion. The bank set aside provisioning expenses of Bt3.38 billion in the second quarter, taking the loan loss reserve coverage of NPLs to 206.1 per cent and the ratio of loan loss reserves to total loans to 5.5 per cent.

The net interest margin (NIM) declined from 2.49 per cent in the second half of 2012 to 2.41 per cent in the first six months of 2013. The decrease partly resulted from lower rates of return from lending, and lower rates of return from interbank and money-market items.

Thanks to the pre-provision operating profit of Bt3.72 billion in the second quarter, TMB Bank has set extra provisions of Bt4.14 billion in response to the central bank’s recommendation on proactive provision schemes to reduce unexpected risk in the future.

As a result of the huge extra provision, TMB’s consolidated net profit for the second quarter fell to Bt251.53 million from Bt976.30 million in the same period last year. However, its net profit for the first six months was Bt2.06 billion, higher than Bt1.78 billion in the same period of 2012.

In the first six months, TMB saw loan growth of 2.5 per cent, driven by SME loans, but its deposits dropped by 3.6 per cent.

NIM for the second quarter improved slightly to 2.99 per cent from 2.68 per cent in the first quarter.

Boontuck Wungcharoen, chief executive of TMB, said in the bank’s statement that during the first six months, it had shown continuing improvement in performance due to its focus on improving customer service and offering transactional banking products and services that truly meet customer needs. NIM in the first six months increased to 2.97 per cent from 2.59 per cent.

NPLs increased slightly to 4.03 per cent in the second quarter from 4.0 per cent in the first.

CIMB Thai Bank yesterday reported its second-quarter consolidated net profit of Bt230.63 million increased from Bt49.3 million, and as a result its six-month net profit jumped to Bt543.7 million from Bt330.42 million year on year.

Lending growth in the first six months expanded by 8.8 per cent thanks to the growth of retail loans. NPLs in the first six months improved to 2.8 per cent from 3.5 per cent year on year.