Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) targets its total sales coming from retail financing to grow to RM8 billion this year with the launch of its new personal financing products.

Chief Executive Officer Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman said: "It is achievable as
we will have more interesting products that we will introduce later this year.

"Furthermore, last year's total sales for personal financing products were
RM6.6 billion and it surpassed our initial target of RM6.5 billion."

Speaking to reporters after the launch of the company's latest financing
products, he said currently, retail financing contributed about 75 per cent of
the total portfolio of MBSB while the remaining contributed by corporate and
wholesale.

He said the retail contribution would increase to 80 per cent with the
introduction of the hire purchase financing in February.

Alongside with the increase in sales from retail financing, retail assets
also grew in leaps from RM300 million as at end of 2009 to RM8 billion as at end of last year.

Ahmad Zaini said the 81 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to RM241.6
million for the first nine months of 2011 was benefited from the increase in
retail assets.

"The strong earnings posted were mainly due to the increase in retail assets
as our personal financing continues to grow over the years," he said.

Today, MBSB introduced two personal financing products -- MBSB X-Change-i
and MBSB Max-i. -- Bernama