KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): CIMB Group Holdings Bhd is expecting its provisions for loans to be lower — with an 80 to 90 basis points (bps) guidance — for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2021 (FY21).

Last year, provisions for loans rose to 146 bps.

“We do expect significantly lower provisions across our segments, and also across key operating markets — Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, reflecting the recovery,” said CIMB’s group chief financial officer Khairul Rifaie at the bank’s FY20 financial result virtual briefing.

“Within Malaysia itself, in 2020, we were impacted by the provisioning on the management overlays, and we don’t expect that to be repeated in 2021,” said Khairul.

Thus, he said the bank should see a significant improvement in the provisioning levels for Malaysia across consumer, wholesale and commercial banking.

For FY20, the group's gross impaired ratio (GIL) was at 3.6%. But, for Malaysia, GIL dropped to 2.5%.

CIMB’s shares closed unchanged at RM4.33 today, valuing the bank at RM42.97 billion. The counter gained some 49% from last year’s low of RM2.90 back in November.

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