BRUNEI Darussalam’s banking sector showed stronger profitability and improving assets quality last year.
Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam (AMBD) in a press release said that overall, the key financial soundness indicators in the banking sector were maintained at healthy levels.
“As at end of December 2015, the aggregate regulatory capital adequacy ratio for the banking sector stood at 21.5 per cent, well above the minimum regulatory requirement of 10 per cent.
“The loans/financing of the banks have increased by 7.2 per cent from $5.7 billion as at end December 2014 to $6.1 billion as at end December 2015.
“The key profitability indicators of Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) as at end December 2015 stood at 1.3 per cent and nine per cent respectively,” said the statement.
It added that the gross non-performing loans/financing ratio showed improvement by declining to 4.9 per cent as at end December 2015 from five per cent as at end December 2014.
“This shows that the prudential policies of the AMBD, coupled with strong income figures for the banks, have ensured the continuing soundness and stability of our financial sector,” said the statement.
AMBD said that this year, it intends to build on these sound foundations and continue with its targeted implementation of the Basel II Capital Adequacy Framework by 2017.
“These strong profit and performance figures for the Brunei’s banking sector show that profits are rising, not falling and that AMBD regulations are having a positive effect on banks’ non-performing loans/financing ratios and allowing consumers to manage their financial affairs more effectively to the benefit of the economy as a whole,” said Managing Director of AMBD, Yusof bin Haji Abdul Rahman.
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