It said that loan growth was marginally slower for mortgages, personal loans, and credit cards, while share margin financing contracted even more, during the month.
Auto financing and non-residential property lending nevertheless picked up pace, the investment bank said in a note today.
Maybank IB said industry loan growth was a slower 5.0 per cent in March 2023 versus 5.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in Feb 2023.
But positively, loan applications have seen a double-digit month-on-month (m-o-m) increase over the last two months, which should provide some support to loan growth, it said.
Maybank IB said that CASA contracted for the third consecutive month, pointing to much NIM pressure in the first quarter of 2023 (1Q23).
"Anecdotal evidence would however suggest that NIM pressure is easing and some rationality is returning to deposit pricing. We maintain BUYs on CIMB, RHB, HLFG, HLBK, AMMB, and ABMB," it said.
Maybank IB said having contracted m-o-m from Aug 2022 to Jan 2023, loan applications jumped 29 per cent m-o-m in Feb 2023 and continued with double-digit growth of 23 per cent in Mar 2023.
It said the m-o-m increase was broad-based across practically every major segment. A negative development, however, was that CASA contracted for the third consecutive month, by 1.8 per cent y-o-y, versus a contraction of 0.2 per cent y-o-y in Jan and Feb 2023 respectively.
Deposit growth was a slower 4.6 per cent y-o-y in Mar 2023, as compared to 5.1 per cent y-o-y in Feb 2023.
Consumer loan growth was slower at 5.4 per cent y-o-y in Mar 2023 from 5.7 per cent y-o-y in Feb 2023. Loan growth was marginally slower for mortgages, personal loans, and credit cards, while share margin financing contracted even more, during the month, Maybank IB said.
