Maybank reported net profit of MYR 10.51 billion (approximately $2.46 billion) in 2025, up 4.2% year-on-year, with profit before tax rising to MYR 14.33 billion (approximately $3.35 billion). Net operating income increased to MYR 30.38 billion (approximately $7.10 billion), while pre-provisioning operating profit rose to MYR 15.54 billion (approximately $3.63 billion). Return on equity (ROE) improved to 11.7% from 11.1%, exceeding the bank’s guidance of at least 11.3%. The results conclude Maybank’s M25+ strategic cycle and mark the transition into ROAR 30, its next five-year roadmap. The bank’s results reflect steady progress in reshaping its earnings profile, with return expansion supported by funding optimisation, wealth income growth and asset quality improvement, while financing growth remained selective across markets. Group financing grew 1.7% year-on-year, with expansion in Malaysia and Singapore. Singapore loans rose 5.0%, while current and savings account (CASA) balances in Group Global Banking surged 55.2%, reinforcing the corridor strategy's commercial traction. However, Indonesia saw a contraction following portfolio rebalancing. Efficiency also remained within guidance. The bank’s cost-to-income ratio (CIR) came in at 48.8%, below the guided 49% ceiling, as income growth outpaced costs despite continued investment. Looking ahead, group chief financial officer Syafiq Abdul Jabbar confirmed 2026 guidance of ROE above 11.8%, loan growth of 4–5% on a constant-currency basis and net interest margin (NIM) range-bound between 2.05% and 2.10%. Deposit franchise strength supports margin stability and funding flexibility Funding optimisation was a key contributor to earnings stability. Abdul Jabbar described replacing higher-cost deposits and rebalancing toward CASA balances, leading to margin resilience. He explained: “There were some very expensive deposits that we attracted and we rebalanced — and that together with the same activities being done in Indonesia as well as Singapore have resulted in the NIM expanding.” CASA balances increased to MYR 296 billion (approximately $69.08 billion), with the CASA ratio rising to 40.5% from 36.5%. NIM was maintained at 2.05% for the full year, and the quarterly exit was firmer: NIM rose 7 basis points quarter-on-quarter from 2.02% in 3Q to 2.09% in 4Q, placing the bank at the top end of its 2.05%–2.10% guidance band entering 2026. Liquidity remained robust alongside the shift in deposit mix. Liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) rose to 138% from 134% a year earlier, while net stable funding ratio (NSFR) was 116%, supporting the bank’s ability to optimise funding without compromising regulatory liquidity posture. Deposit strength is increasingly being used as an active earnings lever. As rate expectations and policy trajectories diverge, margin defence depends on deposit pricing discipline and avoiding expensive funding. Wealth management and fee income expand across the business Wealth management delivered the strongest income growth across the group. Wealth fees increased 27.9% year-on-year to MYR 1.50 billion (approximately $350.55 million), driven by investment product and bancassurance distribution. Total financial assets in Group Community Financial Services increased to MYR 562.29 billion (approximately $131.14 billion), supported by investment inflows and financing growth. The group’s 27% rise in Islamic wealth assets under management (AUM) alongside bancassurance-led fee growth points to product penetration and client conversion as meaningful drivers, rather than a predominantly passive market uplift. Fee momentum is not confined to wealth. Global markets income came in at just under MYR 3 billion (approximately $700.11 million), up around 2%, while foreign exchange (FX) sales volumes grew 10–11% year-on-year with income up approximately 3.3%, which Abdul Jabbar framed as recurring corridor-driven activity across ASEAN rather than episodic trading gains. The non-retail segment recorded its strongest growth in Singapore, with income rising 17.7% year-on-year, ahead of Malaysia at 9.2% and Indonesia at 5.6%. Group Community Financial Services, which contributed 56% of group net operating income, generated MYR 17.01 billion (approximately $3.97 billion) for the year. Non-interest income increased 6.2%, offsetting lower net fund-based income. Profit before tax declined 7.3% to MYR 5.28 billion (approximately $1.23 billion), reflecting continued investment in personnel and technology. The segment remains the group's largest earnings anchor. SME lending expanded 9% in Malaysia, 18% in Singapore, and 6% in Indonesia, while fee income growth outpaced margin income. Asset quality improvement supported earnings progression Net credit charges declined to 8 basis points, reflecting recoveries and one significant corporate restructuring. Abdul Jabbar indicated that the outcome is not expected to repeat at the same level, with 2026 net credit charges guided to normalise toward approximately 20 basis points. In explaining the bank’s risk posture, Abdul Jabbar said: “The margins that we make are about 2%, and that 2% is quite a fine margin. We have very little room for error, so asset quality becomes the foundation, the base of us underwriting credit.” At year-end, group gross impaired loans ratio was 1.28% versus 1.23% a year earlier, reflecting marginal deterioration driven by new impaired loans from Malaysia. Abdul Jabbar noted that the intra-year trend across Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia was consistently declining from June through December, suggesting improving momentum beneath the headline ratio. Provisioning remained conservative. Loan loss cover was 106.7%, meaning provisions exceeded impaired loans, and management overlays of MYR 2.3 billion (approximately $536.51 million) provided an additional buffer against macroeconomic uncertainty, with 67% allocated to retail and SME portfolios and 33% to commercial and corporate borrowers. The overlay includes a portion set aside for tariff-related stress assessment, where management’s stance was that direct exposure is limited but second-order effects are inherently harder to quantify. Indonesia repositioning reflects portfolio optimisation and long-term return potential Indonesia remains central to Maybank’s ASEAN proposition and is being framed as a strategic imperative rather than an optional adjacency. Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, chairman of Maybank, emphasised: “We are unable to be an ASEAN strategy if we don’t have Indonesia. ASEAN has about 600 million in total and with Indonesia bearing half of that.” However, the performance challenge remains visible, as Abdul Jabbar acknowledged the return gap directly. “The business is admittedly not yielding the returns that we would like it to return, and we would like to bring it back up to at least a double-digit ROE in the mid to longer term,” he noted. Indonesia's profit trajectory is nonetheless improving: net profit attributable to shareholders surged 48.5% year-on-year in 2025, driven by cost management and a continued reduction in loan loss provisions, suggesting the repositioning is beginning to move financial outcomes even as returns remain below group targets. John Chong, group chief executive, Global Banking, described the bank’s repositioning strategy in operational terms, focusing on following existing relationships into Indonesia through multiple product lines: “We are focusing on inbound companies coming in from Malaysia to Singapore that are setting up or investing in Indonesia. We have the relationship at the headquarters or in Singapore and we follow those clients in — not just within one product, but multi-product.” Digital execution is also being prioritised as a competitive prerequisite, in a market shaped by aggressive digital incumbents and fintech platforms. The bank's next-generation MAE app rollout is being prioritised in Indonesia ahead of Malaysia and Singapore. While Indonesia is currently a drag on return quality, Abdul Jabbar emphasised the sensitivity of group returns to Indonesia’s improvement: “If we can go from a ~5% ROE to a 10% ROE [over time], the impact is actually sizeable.” Islamic banking strengthens franchise differentiation and supports capital-efficient growth Maybank Islamic recorded profit before tax and zakat of MYR 4.65 billion (approximately $1.09 billion), up 11.2% year-on-year, with total income increasing to MYR 9.10 billion (approximately $2.12 billion). Islamic financing accounted for 72.4% of Maybank Malaysia’s financing. Islamic wealth AUM increased to MYR 18.22 billion (approximately $4.25 billion), up 27% year-on-year, reinforcing that the Islamic franchise is also functioning as a distribution channel for wealth products rather than only a financing and deposits platform. Maybank’s 2025 earnings uplift also points to mix effects within Islamic banking, where financing growth is complemented by fee-bearing contributions such as takaful distribution and sukuk-related income, supporting returns without proportionate balance sheet intensity. Capital strength supports disciplined allocation and shareholder returns Maybank maintains strong capital levels, supporting balance sheet resilience and shareholder distributions. Group CET1 ratio stood at 15.13% and total capital ratio at 19.05%. Capital is actively located, assessed, and redeployed where returns justify it. Abdul Jabbar noted: “The plans that we have in place are to assess if capital is being gainfully employed. If not, we try to redeploy it where returns can meet our expectations.” Maybank's dividend of MYR 0.63 (approximately $0.15) per share implies a yield of around 6%, the second-highest full-cash payout in the last ten years, contrasting with the earlier scrip-heavy structure. Maybank’s 2025 results show progress in strengthening earnings quality and capital efficiency. Wealth income growth, funding optimisation, and portfolio discipline supported return improvement. The 2026 guidance includes loan growth of 4–5%, ROE above 11.8%, and NIM at 2.05–2.10%. These changes reflect the durability of structural earnings shifts as one-off tailwinds, such as unusually low credit charges, normalise. The sustainability of Maybank’s returns will be tested by several dynamics: credit cost normalisation, scaling of wealth and fee income and the bank’s cross-border franchise under ROAR 30. The ambition is explicit — ROAR 30 targets an ROE of 13%–14% and a CIR below 47% by 2030, requiring sustained execution across the franchise.
