KUALA LUMPUR: Public Bank Bhd has mobilised over RM53 billion of sustainable finance since 2020, which is more than half of its targeted RM100 billion by 2030.
The RM53 billion covers financing portfolio such as energy efficient vehicles financing, affordable homes financing, corporate loans and green financing facilities.
"The Public Bank Group remains committed to drive sustainable best practices in line with its Sustainability Roadmap," Public Bank managing director and chief executive officer Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek said in a statement after its shareholders' meeting today.
Going forward, Tay said the group remains focused on continues to develop and promote financial products and services that integrate ESG considerations into various aspects of banking.
He noted that the group will also continue to drive digital transformation and focus on its sustainability commitments.
"Amid the changing business environment, the group will constantly adapt and improve in all aspects to remain relevant and ensure sustainable value generation for its stakeholders," he added.
The group will continue to stay abreast with market development and take appropriate strategic initiatives to sustain its leading market share in the financing, deposit and unit trust industry.
He said the group will also continue to ensure that it remains well-capitalised and well-funded.
Coupled with its resilient asset quality and prudent loan loss reserves, Tay said these will enable the group to generate sustainable profit moving forward.
For 2023, Public Bank achieved pre-tax profit of RM8.54 billion compared to RM8.83 billion in the previous year.
Its net profit grew 8.7 per cent from RM6.12 billion to RM6.65 billion over the same period, while earnings per share increased to 34.3 sen.
The group's stable profit performance was attributed to continued growth in loans and deposits, improvement in non-interest income and lower loan loss allowances.
Tay said Public Bank continued to outperform its banking peers in 2023.
He added that the group is the most cost-efficient bank in Malaysia with the lowest cost to income ratio of 33.7 per cent, as compared to the industry's average cost to income ratio of 48.3 per cent.
'In terms of asset quality, the group's domestic gross impaired loans ratio of 0.4 per cent remained the best amongst the Malaysian banking groups.
"This was also significantly better than the banking industry's gross impaired loans ratio of 1.6 per cent.
"The group's resilient net return on equity of 13 per cent was also well above the domestic banking peers' average net return on equity of 10 per cent," he noted.