AMMB Holdings Bhd CEO Jamie Ling said the group expects loan growth to accelerate to 4-5%, driven by its business and wholesale banking segments. (Photo by Suhaimi Yusuf/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (May 27): AMMB Holdings Bhd (KL:AMBANK), Malaysia’s sixth-largest banking group, said on Monday it is seeking to accelerate loan growth to 4-5% after falling short of its own target last year.

For the financial year ending March 31, 2025 (FY2025), AMMB expects loan growth to be driven by its business and wholesale banking segments, chief executive officer Jamie Ling told reporters at an earnings briefing. Retail banking's loan growth however may slow down, particularly on mortgages, he noted.

Small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized corporates will lead loan growth, Ling said. “We will be quite ambitious in terms of a higher growth” for business banking, he said.

Meanwhile, large infrastructure and construction projects launched by the government would also create demand for corporate lending and benefiting AMMB’s wholesale banking, he added.

In FY2024, loan growth came in at 3% versus 6% target. Gross loans and financing totalled RM134.1 billion compared with RM130.2 billion in FY2023 as the expansion in retail and business banking offset the decline in wholesale segment.

The bank tightened mortgage underwriting standards, particularly for lower credit score borrowers, and also reviewed its mortgage pricing to focus on profitability, resulting in slower approvals for mortgages and affecting overall loan growth, Ling said.

Another factor dragging down the outstanding gross loan growth last year, Ling continued, was due to a large RM1.4 billion loan repayment.

AMMB shares closed unchanged at RM4.27 on Monday, giving the banking group a market capitalisation of RM14.15 billion.