Bank Rakyat bullish on FY17 results

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhd (Bank Rakyat), which has announced a higher dividend payout of 15% for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2016 (FY16) compared with 13% in FY15, is optimistic that its performance for FY17 will be better than in FY16.
“I’m looking more towards the domestic area and at what we have installed. We have some new revenue streams that we’d like to enhance but it wouldn’t give us an immediate effect ... it probably would come in the last quarter or next year,” managing director and president Datuk Zulkiflee Abbas Abdul Hamid told a press conference after the announcement of its FY16 results last Friday.
Bank Rakyat is targeting a financing growth of 6.5% this year, compared with 7.3% last year, to be driven mainly by retail financing. In FY16, Bank Rakyat saw its net profit drop 10.7% to RM1.16 billion, lower than RM1.30 billion a year ago due to higher cost of funds.
On Bank Rakyat’s graft case involving its former chairman and managing director, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin said the bank was forced to look at the matter amid a challenging economic climate.
“In terms of corporate governance, that has been carried out all this while. Corporate governance requires a firm committee to follow through, what more in a situation when the bank was without a chairman and managing director starting middle of last year and this is something that is looked upon by all shareholders.
“Even in that situation, we were able to maintain our position as a syariah-compliant cooperative bank that is recognised by the world,” said Hamzah. – by Ee Ann Nee