PETALING JAYA: The banking system continues to maintain healthy liquidity positions, recording a strong liquidity coverage ratio of 156.7%, a position which remains supportive of intermediation activities, says Bank Negara.

       The central bank said the banking system has seen stable funding growth, particularly in retail deposits, which continued to support banks’ intermediation activities with the aggregate net stable funding ratio (NSFR) standing at 119% as of March 2022.

       The asset quality in the banking system also remained intact, with overall gross impaired and net impaired loan ratios remaining stable at 1.6% and 0.9%, respectively, Bernama reported Bank Negara as saying in its April 2022 monthly highlights report released yesterday.

       “Banks continued to be prudent in loan provisioning to buffer against potential credit losses, with total provisions and regulatory reserves amounting to RM40.2bil in April 2022 from RM39.8bil in March 2022.

       “Total provisions stood at 1.8% as a share of total banking system loans and 113.4% of impaired loans,” it said.

       Bank Negara noted that the net financing growth was also sustained in April, continuing to grow at 4.6%, supported by a higher growth in outstanding loans of 5% compared to 4.6% in March, amid some moderation in the growth of outstanding corporate bonds at 3.7% against 4.6% in March.

       The outstanding household loan growth was sustained at 4.9%.