KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): RHB Bank Bhd recorded a 22% year-on-year increase in net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2022 (4QFY2022), due to the absence of modification loss, as well as significantly lower allowances for credit losses on financial assets.

Net profit grew to RM772.11 million or 18.24 sen per share for 4QFY2022, from RM631.16 million or 15.34 sen per share a year earlier, the group told Bursa Malaysia on Monday (Feb 27).

This was despite net interest income growing by a meagre 2% rate to RM1.05 billion for 4QFY2022, from RM1.03 billion previously.

The group declared a second interim dividend of 25 sen, of which 20 sen will be cash and the remaining five sen can be opted for dividend reinvestment plans.

For the full FY2022, RHB posted a net profit of RM2.71 billion, up 3.4% from RM2.62 billion a year earlier, while net interest income grew 17% to RM7.38 billion from RM6.33 billion.

RHB said FY2022 loan growth stood at 6.9%, with net interest margin inching up to 2.24%, from 2.20% recorded in FY2021.

The cost-to-income ratio, meanwhile, improved to 44.7% in FY2022, compared with 45.2% a year earlier.

“The group demonstrated resilience and delivered a commendable performance for FY2022. Our growth momentum and fundamentals remain strong as reflected by our strong capital and liquidity positions,” said group managing director and chief executive officer Mohd Rashid Mohamad in a statement on Monday.

“Our key focus in FY2023 will be to kick start our programme in nurturing and supporting our SME (small and medium enterprise) customers towards integrating sustainable practices into their business and operations, by playing an advisory role as well as through the sustainable products and solutions that we offer,” he added.

As at end-2022, Mohd Rashid said, RHB had achieved more than RM14 billion in sustainable financial services, which exceeded the bank’s 2022 target by more than 60%.

Shares in RHB were trading eight sen or 1.5% higher at RM5.56 at the time of writing on Monday, valuing it at RM23.61 billion.