Malayan Banking Bhd does not foresee the Overnight Policy Rate being lowered further than the current 1.75%, but its group president and chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Farid Alias is not discounting the idea completely either.
On the whole, Abdul Farid opined that the worst is over for the bank as it posted a net profit of RM941.73 million for the second quarter ended June 30, a 51.5% decline from RM1.94 billion reported in the same quarter of the previous year attributed to outsized impairment losses reported for the period.
Noting that the performance of the banking sector reflects the overall economy, he said the purchasing managers index – a measure of economic activity – for Malaysia and globally for June and July has been above the 50-point threshold, which indicated economic expansion. Abdul Farid noted should the approval for a clinical trial for a Covid-19 vaccine by AstraZeneca come to pass in October, this could arrest the impact of the pandemic on the global economy.