KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 21): Malayan Banking Bhd (KL:MAYBANK) said on Friday its net profit rose 3% in the third quarter from a year earlier thanks to both interest and non-interest income.

Net profit for the three months ended Sept 30, 2025 (3QFY2025) was RM2.62 billion, Malaysia’s biggest bank by assets said in an exchange filing. Year-on-year, net interest income was up 2.5% during the quarter while non-interest income was 4.8% higher.

Maybank maintained its return-on-equity target of at least 11.3% for the year.

Strong deposit growth and a rebound in net interest margin reflects the “positive traction of our deposit and funding strategy”, said group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Khairussaleh Ramli.

“Our focus remains on cementing structural improvements in productivity, capital efficiency, and customer experience,” he said.

Maybank's net interest margin, which measures profitability by comparing income from loans to expenses on deposits, improved two basis points from the second quarter thanks to liquidity and funding costs management. On a year-on-year basis, however, the margin was lower by one basis point.

Gross loans expanded 2.7% driven by Malaysia and Singapore while lending in Indonesia slipped from a continued “rebalancing” of the corporate portfolio.

Current-account-savings-account, the cheapest source of funds for banks, expanded 15% year-on-year. 

No dividend was declared for the quarter under review.

For the first nine months, net profit stood at RM7.84 billion, up 3.7% from a year earlier. Net interest income expanded 1.6% while non-interest income was up 6.3%.

Net impairment provisions decreased by 1.5% to RM1.25 billion from RM1.27 billion a year ago, following the conclusion of an unidentified corporate borrower’s restructuring exercise and recoveries made for the non-retail portfolio.

The return on equity stood at 11.5% for the period.

At Friday’s midday break, Maybank's shares were up two sen or 0.2% at RM9.92, giving the bank a market value of RM119.85 billion.