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Chek Tan: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to CIMB Group's Financial Results briefing for the second quarter of 2026. Our host today is CIMB Group's CEO, Novan Amirudin; and Group CFO, Khairul Rifaie. My name is Steven from the CIMB IR team. You should have received the analyst presentation and financial statements via e-mail from the Group IR e-mail. Otherwise, you may find the documents in the IR section of our website at cimb.com. Please be informed that this briefing is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] At this juncture, I would like to hand over the briefing to Novan and Khairul. Novan, over to you.
Muhammad Amirudin: Thank you very much, Steven. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to share our second quarter '26 performance. It has been a very resilient performance. In fact, we're seeing very good momentum as we move from the first quarter to the second quarter. So for the second quarter, we delivered a net profit of MYR 1.94 billion, which then translates to an annualized ROE of 11.2% for the quarter. And the earnings momentum that we're seeing is as a result of the transformation activities that we have been doing with regards to Forward30, which we started last year. I mean before I deep dive into some of my observations, I just want to share with you, again, a recap a bit of our journey over the last 1.5 years. So we mentioned that we're going to focus on the 4 Cs: capital, cash, cross-sell, and capabilities. With regards to capital, we have been assessing the underperforming businesses within our portfolio. We've been assessing businesses where we'd have difficulties in terms of scaling up by 2030. And we're taking very, very decisive actions. We started with the divestment of our Thai Auto business, which we scheduled to complete on schedule by the fourth quarter of this year or the early fourth quarter of this year, which will then free up capital for us to reallocate into other higher growth and higher profitability businesses. We then focus a lot on our cash and our cross-sell initiatives. On the cash side, our front-end apps, OCTO, OCTO Biz, Touch 'N Go are all next-generation ready. And now we are leveraging a lot on the strengths between the CIMB Group apps, which is OCTO, OCTObiz and our platform itself together with the Touch 'N Go platform. On the cross-sell side, a lot of focus on our regional wholesale presence. We've made a number of new hires across the bank. We're operating wholesale very differently, very centrally-focused. And that has, basically, allowed us to capture a lot of the opportunities that we're seeing coming up in the recent structural shifts that we're seeing across ASEAN, namely on the AI data centers, wealth, as well as cross-border trades. With -- these 3 teams are, basically, driving a lot of the growth that we're seeing in the momentum that we have in the second quarter. And then on the capability side, a lot of focus has gone in over the last 1.5 years to make ourselves Simpler, Better, and Faster. It's about making our processes more efficient. And then once the processes are more efficient, we then apply technology and AI to make it better. We're starting to be able to extract value from the Simpler, Better, Faster transformation by reducing costs. Cost is coming down. If you look at our cost over the last couple of quarters, it is trending down, and we expect OpEx to come down some more. But all in all, the transformation exercise under Forward30 with regards to 4Cs is taking shape. It is accelerating. It is creating a differentiated franchise for us, which then allows us to capture the growth opportunities that we are seeing. So despite the challenging backdrop, despite what everyone is seeing in Indonesia, despite what people are seeing in Thailand, the transformation exercise that we have has been able to mitigate all these challenges. And therefore, for the second quarter, both NII and NOIII are up quarter-on-quarter. In fact, on the NII side, it's really led by growth in assets and loans, up 2.2% and 1.1% quarter-on-quarter, respectively. And this increase has managed to offset the 4 basis points NIM decline that we see. What is encouraging is the loan and asset pipeline remains very strong. And therefore, we expect to meet our assets and loan growth guidance that we guided earlier in the year. NOIII saw 6% growth quarter-on-quarter, mainly driven by the teams that I mentioned earlier around wealth and cross-border. So we're seeing higher franchise fees, and we're seeing a sustained level of client sales momentum, whether is it in the wealth business or whether is it in the treasury client sales business. And then our transformation to become Simpler, Better, Faster. I mentioned earlier about the OpEx declining. Cost-to-income ratio for the quarter is 45.2%, but not at the expense of investment in technology and AI. Asset quality remains stable. GIL has improved to an all-time low of 1.6%. As a result, we are declaring a dividend of [ MYR 0.1965 ] per share, which translates to a payout ratio of above 55%. Our CET1 is at 14%. So some examples of what we have introduced under Forward30 in the second quarter. And all these are done to really differentiate ourselves versus our peers. First is to make sure that we can capture the opportunities that's arising from the structural shifts in ASEAN, 3 main themes that we saw: AI data centers, wealth and cross-border corridors, and we're positioning ourselves within each of these areas to make sure that we can capture all this growth. In fact, the asset loan growth that we're seeing, quite a sizable proportion of it is coming from the AI and data center space. With regards to wealth, we introduced a new private wealth segment to coexist in between the preferred and private banking segments that we already have. And this is really to tap into a customer segment that we haven't serviced as well with having 2 segments only in the past. On the digital side, we also introduced a new feature on OCTO called MyWealth. So on our OCTO banking app, there is a feature you click on MyWealth, you answer 14 questions. We will then assign to you a risk rating. Based on that risk rating, we'll suggest to you an asset allocation in terms of how much cash you should have, how much regional equities, local equities, fixed income, alternative investments. And then within each of the asset class, the MyWealth app will then recommend to you what investments to invest in. Something very different compared to what else is on the market today. I think most banking apps, you will need to decide yourself what to invest in over the hundreds of products that's available. But on OCTO, it's very advisory-focused and it's available to everyone. Cross-border corridors, I've mentioned this previously, our commitment in JS-SEZ with regards to our MYR 10 billion loan commitment, we are outperforming on that side, a lot of it linked to data centers as well as our ASEAN Financial Passport program. We've announced a number of partnerships and MOUs with regards to China and ASEAN, both with financial institutions as well as with technology providers such as blockchain, and we continue to double down on our very successful Singapore, Malaysia corridor. The most successful product at the moment is our FX proposition. There's a lot of Malaysians working in Singapore. They send money home back every month. We guarantee you best FX rates. As a result, customers open CASA account with us in Singapore and Malaysia. One area that we are double downing on and we increased that intensity this second quarter, in fact, we introduced 2 new products, is really to increase the leveraging between CIMB platform and Touch 'N Go platform. This is where CIMB is unique. No other peer in Malaysia is both a universal bank as well as the national e-wallet. We have the benefit of both. And we are leveraging on both platforms. Two new services that we introduced in second quarter. First is the ability to invest in gold via the Touch 'N Go app, and this service is provided by CIMB. Secondly, is if you're an SME business, you use Touch 'N Go for collections today, you can then also apply for working capital financing via the BizCash feature on Touch 'N Go app. You click on the app, it then directs you to CIMB. Thirdly, this is something we announced yesterday. We believe this is the future of financial markets, and this is tokenization. It has been a 4-month journey for us. In April, we were advisers to Khazanah who pioneered tokenised sukuk issuance in Malaysia. Given that was the first issuance, we started small. We started with $100 million with a few institutional investors who invested via fiat currency. But what we did yesterday, we took it to the next level. We used the CIMB bond to be issued in tokenized format instead. So of the MYR 1.68 billion issuance, MYR 1.38 billion was issued in tokenized format. It was issued to 12 institutional investors and those investors subscribe for our sukuk using a CIMB tokenized deposit. So this is the evolution starting from the Khazanah pilot to now the CIMB pilot. We are the first Malaysian bank to do so. But we are double downing on tokenization because we do believe this is the next financial market innovation that will come through over the next coming years, and we want to make sure that we are the first to innovate and to introduce this to our customers. Both were executed still under a sandbox approach, but there's been many learnings by the entire industry with regards to this from the regulators to issuers, investors, advisers, and we're taking all these learnings for future issuances. But the next step from this, really, is to move from pilot phase to practical execution. So with that summary, I will now hand it over to Khairul to go through the rest of the presentation. Khairul, over to you.
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: Thank you, Novan, and good afternoon, everyone. So firstly, what I'll go through is the second quarter key highlights in terms of the financials on Slide 6. A few key points here that I wanted to highlight. Firstly, the strong NOII growth that Novan mentioned has resulted in terms of the proportion of NOII contribution to total income expanding nicely by 1 percentage points. During the second quarter, we also took some conservative view in terms of our overlays, and that has resulted in our credit cost being at 38 basis points during the quarter. If you go to the next slide on Slide 7, on the full half year basis, the additional overlays that we took during the second quarter, the full -- the half year annualized credit cost is at 34 basis points, so well -- still well within our guidance of 25 to 35 basis points. The strong NOII growth that continued during the second quarter has translated on a good year-on-year number where that proportion has expanded by 1.3 percentage points coupled with the strong total asset growth on a constant currency basis at 6.3% year-on-year, this has mitigated that margin compression of minus 10 basis points on a year-on-year basis. Other highlights I wanted to share, if you look at slide -- if you move to Slide 8, firstly, just giving more color on that NOII growth. So this is the second quarter where we recorded good sequential growth on NOII. So if you look at the left-hand chart, during the first quarter, NOII sequentially grew by 11.9%. In the second quarter, NOII sequential growth was also strong at 6% Q-on-Q. So this really drove our total income growth of 2.8% coupled with the fact that total asset growth was good at 1.8% Q-on-Q. So this overall mitigated that 4 basis points margin compression that you see on the line chart at the bottom. We have been saying that FX translation has had a negative impact in terms of growth on our reported number. However, if you look at our underlying performance on a constant currency basis, those line charts are depicting the year-on-year growth of both operating income and net profit. And both trend lines, you can see in terms of our operating income, has been resilient on a year-on-year growth basis on constant currency hovering around that 4% level. Similarly, on net profit, that has been relatively stable except for the first quarter, but overall, it is still hovering around the 4% to 5% growth level. On costs, this is where we have exercised very good cost controls where both on a Q-on-Q and year-on-year basis, our cost has come down. Moving on to the next slide, Slide 9. This is some of the key highlights on business segment. Firstly, on Consumer Banking, the strong growth on a Q-on-Q basis is really driven by wealth and also other income. NOII growing by 10% Q-on-Q driving that PBT growth. On a year-on-year basis, Consumer Banking did face some margin pressure, and this is coupled by the absence of overlay write-back and also write-backs related to model enhancements that we recorded in 2025. So the absence of that resulted in the PBT coming down. On Wholesale Banking, both on a Q-on-Q and year-on-year basis, the growth is mainly driven by robust treasury and markets total income growth. However, during this year, I mean, we also had some recoveries in Singapore and also Indonesia contributing to that PBT bottom line growth. On Commercial Banking, Q-on-Q, the absence of an overlay write-back and recovery in the second quarter versus the first quarter resulted in PBT being lower. On a year-on-year basis, that recovery during the first quarter of 2026 also contributed to the overall half year growth on a year-on-year basis, coupled with the fact that the client franchise NOII number was stronger for commercial banking year-on-year. On CDA, both on the Q-on-Q and year-on-year number was impacted by some of the central OpEx that we took during the second quarter, which was related to the Thai transformation restructuring and also some of the central expense provision that we took, and that impacted the overall number. However, if you look at Touch 'N Go Digital on its own, it's still trajecting well in terms of profitability. Next slide on country. Malaysia Q-on-Q, the top line growth is strong at 9%. This is, however, offset by the timing of our write-backs and bookings overlay. So that moderated the bottom line growth to 1.1%. On a year-on-year basis, similarly, the timing of the overlay write-backs and overlay charge impacting the bottom line growth. However, if you look at it from a top line perspective, Malaysia top line grew by 3.7% with NII exceeding that, growing at 4.3%. Singapore Q-on-Q, we did have a legacy recovery coming through during the second quarter, driving that PBT growth. On a year-on-year basis, in addition to that second quarter 2026 recovery, Banca Wealth also grew well on a year-on-year basis. Indonesia, overall, we had some challenges in terms of NII, impacting some of the moderate NII growth for both Q-on-Q and year-on-year. We did also record lower recoveries where in the first quarter, we recorded a lot more write-back. Similarly, on a year-on-year basis in 2025, there were a bit more write-backs coming through. So the absence of those impacting the bottom line performance. Thailand Q-on-Q, is related mostly to the restructuring costs that we booked during the second quarter. On a year-on-year basis, overall, driven by the transformation that we are doing in Thailand, we are seeing better OpEx year-on-year, and we are also seeing lower ECL year-on-year driving that stronger PBT performance. On Slide 11, breaking the P&L down, firstly, on NII. So you can see our NII growth is good at 1.3% Q-on-Q despite the margin pressure of 4 basis points. If you break down that margin pressure, firstly, is coming through -- coming from Malaysia, coming down by 6 basis points. And this is mostly driven by higher cost of deposits, predominantly on the wholesale side as we fund our strong total asset growth during the quarter, but also looking beyond where we have a strong pipeline on asset growth within Malaysia as well. In Indonesia, on the headline, we are reporting a slight expansion in margin by 2 basis points. On an underlying basis, we do see some pressure given the competition on FDs and also the timing difference where we had a significant rate hike during the quarter. Thailand, we continue to see very good liquidity. We continue to gain deposits despite us optimizing the pricing on deposits, and that has continued to drive our Thai expansion in margins. On the other hand, in Singapore, we did see some slight pressure on SORA, which has impacted our yields and that drove our margin compression by 3 basis points. On a year-on-year basis, the weakness in terms of our NII is mostly due to FX translation. The total asset growth has been good. If you look at it on a constant currency basis, our NII did grow by 1.7%. Margins did contract by 10 basis points, that's mostly driven by Indonesia, because of the backdrop and also the interest rate hikes. In Singapore, the significant SORA movement have impacted our NIMs as well. On the other hand, if you look at Thailand, because we managed to reprice our deposits, we managed to expand our margins quite decently. In Malaysia, we did see a bit of margin pressure of 3 basis points, and this is related to the second quarter movement. But I think it's important to highlight for Malaysia, we did get an interest rate cut in July 2025. So the comparatives will start to look a bit easier. Just to recap, in 2025 on a full year basis, our margin in Malaysia is at 1.78%.So at the moment, we are just slightly down compared to the full year of 2025 of 1.7%. Moving on to NOII on the next slide, you can see in terms of the driver for the quarter is coming from, firstly, fees and commission, that's mostly coming through from wholesale banking. We are sustaining a good level or high level of wealth and also client sales numbers, even though it's slightly down, but it's still at a sustained high number. The other driver, if you look at it under other income, we did record a lumpy non-recurring MYR 100 million in Malaysia that was recorded in the second quarter. On a year-on-year basis, overall, wealth and other income is the main driver of the growth. Fees and commission is down mainly because of corporate fees being weaker in Singapore. Wealth is mostly driven by Singapore and Malaysia. Trading is flattish, whereas client sales treasury continues to outpace the trading side, growing by 4.3% year-on-year. I'll give a bit more color in terms of the other income line. The other income line last year in 2025, we did record an NPL sale gain, mostly in Indonesia, of about MYR 100 million. This year, in 2026, during the second quarter, we did record a lumpy non-recurring other income in Malaysia of MYR 100 million. So if you exclude both of that during the 2 years, we did -- there is a slight increase of MYR 100 million under other income, and that's related to mainly 2 things: One is brokerage income did increase slightly. That's number one. Number two, the foreclosed assets is lower coming from Indonesia were recorded as other income on a year-on-year basis. On operating expense, you can see it's well contained, flattish at that level. There are some movements within the lines. Personnel costs, because of our timing of bonus provisions, that is lower underlying basis has been very stable. Similarly, technology on an underlying basis is stable as well. We did record some one-off write-backs related to provisions on projects that are going live. But if we take that out on an underlying basis, that's stable. Others is more on the timing of some of our marketing and advertisement campaigns. On a year-on-year basis, you can see that number has come down and mostly on our cost controls on the others component and also personnel costs being flat. If you think about it, typically, our personnel cost with our equipments, it should go up, but this is where the cost containment has come through. In terms of our investment, that continues to be the case with our tech CRR being maintained around the 8% level. Moving on to Slide 14 on asset quality. From an overall perspective, that remains stable on an underlying number. But if you look at the P&L ECR movements, I'll break this down on segment by segment. If you look at retail, firstly, we did have -- firstly, we did have some overlay write-back last quarter. And then during this quarter, we reallocated that overlay into those related to inflationary risk related to the Middle Eastern conflict. So the net change of that is around MYR 70 million. That's number one. Number two, in Indonesia, as what you may have already heard during the analyst briefing in Niaga, there is a change in treatment from OJK in terms of the foreclosed assets for auto, and that resulted in a MYR 60 million upfront provision that we needed to make during the second quarter. So this should normalize as we start to recover those assets. But now the treatment is that we need to take that provision upfront. So net-net, that explains the movement on retail. On non-retail, almost similarly is related to overlay. So during this first quarter, we did have an overlay write-back, whereas in the second quarter, then we reallocated most of that overlay into those related to the Middle Eastern conflict. So that change resulted in about MYR 200 million variance on a Q-on-Q basis. On the recoveries, we did record significant recoveries both in Indonesia and also Singapore. So similarly, on a year-on-year number, retail is predominantly driven by the timing of the overlay. Last year, we had a MYR 200 million overlay write-back. That's number one on the retail side. Number two, if you recall, I did mention that we had a model enhancement and that resulted in a MYR 100 million write-back in 2025. So the absence of that plus the additional -- the deallocation of the overlay that we took in the first half resulted in the increase together with the 60 million auto change in treatment that we had to make in Indonesia. The increase in recoveries that's related to the second quarter number, which is the Indonesia and Singapore. I think most importantly, if you look at our gross impaired loans ratio on an underlying basis, that has continued to slightly improve during the quarter, and our allowance coverage is close to the 100% level. On the next slide, Slide 15, on total asset growth. So apart from loans, debt securities was a major driver, and that's mostly coming from Malaysia and Singapore. On gross loans on Slide 16, if we break it down by the segments in Consumer Banking, both Q-on-Q and year-on-year, that's driven by Malaysia and Singapore. Commercial Banking, both Q-on-Q and year-on-year, we have relatively robust growth in Singapore. It's still fairly moderate during the quarter for Malaysia as what we had seen in the first quarter on Commercial Banking. Wholesale Banking is a big driver overall. During the quarter, it's mostly coming through from Indonesia and Thailand and wholesale banking. On a year-on-year basis, that's mostly coming through from Malaysia growing at 8.1% year-on-year. Breaking it down by country, Malaysia, Consumer growing at 4.3% Malaysia Wholesale growing at 8.1%. Indonesia, that growth is mostly driven by Wholesale Banking, whereas Consumer is slightly contracting. Singapore, Consumer Singapore growing at 14% year-on-year and Commercial Banking growing 11% year-on-year. In Thailand, the headline negative growth is really driven by Consumer. Offsetting that is Wholesale Banking growing nicely at 14% year-on-year. On deposits, on Slide 17, growth on CASA continues to be positive at 40 basis points. For the second quarter, Commercial Banking has done very well across our key operating markets driving that growth. Similarly, Thailand Wholesale Banking also driving that CASA growth. However, you can see our CASA proportion has come down slightly during the quarter at 42.6% as we continue to ramp up on the retail. So you can see in terms of total deposits, our growth is at 2.1%, with Consumer Banking growing at 1.1%, where most of that is ramping up our FPs on the Malaysia Consumer side. Secondly, you can also see Wholesale Banking where the Wholesale funding has also picked up during the quarter to fund our total asset growth. Slide 18, dividends as what you've already heard, we maintained our payout 55%, which is equivalent to MYR 2.1 billion. On Slide 19, in terms of our capital and liquidity, that remains very strong with our liquidity profile further improving. Now breaking it down on Slide 20 on our performance by segment. Firstly, on consumer, the strong PPOP growth on a Q-on-Q basis, that's driven by NOII growing by 10%, driven by that lumpy income. On the operating income on a year-on-year basis, it is facing some margin pressure. So there is some NII contraction. However, on fees, which is driven by wealth in Malaysia and Singapore, so overall NOII is actually growing by 12% year-on-year. Fees is one component on wealth. The second component is the other income that's driving the strong NOII growth, partially offsetting the NII pressure that we see on a year-on-year basis. And on the bottom line, where on a year-on-year basis is negative is because of the absence of the write-back that we had in terms of overlay and also the model enhancement that was recorded in 2025. On gross loans, the bigger driver is Malaysia at 4.3%, and also Singapore growing at 14%. CASA Malaysia is driving that growth at 4.3%. Commercial Banking on Slide 21. During the quarter, NOII on fees and FX was strong, growing at 13% year-on-year, driving the operating income growth. On the PBT number being lower, I mentioned earlier, we did have a write-back and also recovery -- overlay write-back and also recovery during the first quarter. And during the second quarter, we did reallocate some overlay. So the movement of that impacting the PBT growth on a Q-on-Q basis. On a year-on-year basis, the flattish growth on operating income is driven by margin compression. NOII is also lower because we had some NPL sale gain in 2025 in the Commercial business. But like I said, in terms of fees and FX, the NOII is actually stronger on a year-on-year basis for commercial banking. The gross loans at 3.3%, that's mostly driven by Singapore. Malaysia remains fairly weak at 1% growth year-on-year, a reflection of the environment and also some of the timing of disbursements. On CASA, that strong year-on-year growth is across our key operating markets of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Slide 22. on Wholesale Banking, at -- underneath that Q-on-Q and year-on-year number, treasury markets is strong, driving the operating income growth where the offset is coming through in terms of the year-on-year number where it's flattish growth is actually where the corporate fees in Singapore is weaker, offsetting the growth on the treasury and market side. PBT growth is strong because of the second quarter recoveries that I mentioned that came through in Indonesia and also Singapore. Gross loans, that is mostly driven by Malaysia at 8.1%. Indonesia during the second quarter was also strong. CASA growth mostly driven by Malaysia, growing by 13% year-on-year. CDA and Group Funding on Slide 23, those central costs that I mentioned related to the transformation costs in Thailand and also some of the central costs in terms of provisioning on cost on OpEx. You can see that has translated to a 25% Q-on-Q growth in OpEx and also 26% year-on-year OpEx and that's mostly at that restructuring side. And that has impacted the bottom line where it has moderated in terms of PBT growth. But if you look at Touch 'N Go group specifically, the trajectory of profitability has continued with the year-on-year growth in profits more than doubled. If you look at some of the drivers in terms of payment value, that has continued to grow very well both on a Q-on-Q and year-on-year basis. So lastly on summary on Slide 24, the operating income growth is mostly driven by NOII, a lot of the overlays are being done at Islamic impacting the bottom line growth. You can see both on a Q-on-Q and year-on-year basis. Our financing continues to be good, mostly driven by Malaysia consumer. A lot of the FDs or term investment account that have been built up during the second quarter is translating into the Islamic deposit strong growth of 9.2% year-on-year. So with that, that's the end of the financials. Thank you, and I pass the presentation back to Novan.
Muhammad Amirudin: Thank you very much, Khairul. So with that, we maintain our 2026 guidance that we have provided earlier this year. And that's really on the back of our Forward30 execution being firmly on track. In fact, we are seeing all the benefits. In fact, the resilience of the second quarter and the good momentum that we're seeing is really showing the benefits of the Forward30 execution. I've always mentioned Forward30 is all about the 4Cs, so Capital, Cash, Cross-sell, and Capabilities and all these to drive long-term sustainable shareholder returns. On the Capital side, we are always looking out at our underperforming businesses, businesses that will struggle to scale, and we are taking decisive action. For example, we divested out of the Thailand auto business, that is on track to be completed in a few months. That capital will then come back and will be reallocated into other growth areas. And if there is excess post us evaluating our business, like how we have proven in the past, that excess could go back to shareholders. But the priority will always be on us reinvesting for growth. And one area that we have really focused on over the last few months is really to double down on our unique digital proposition, which is both the Universal Bank as well as Touch 'N Go. And as Khairul mentioned earlier, Touch 'N Go Group is really outperforming since they broke even not too long ago. The next 2 Cs, on Cash and Cross-sell, these are areas that we continue to have a lot of relentless focus. On the Cash side, we have our OCTO consumer app, OCTO-based app for businesses and Touch 'N Go. All our consumer-facing apps are already next-generation ready. And the simplified journeys, the easy-to-use, are all contributing towards the increase in our Cash franchise. The focus on Cross-sell, a lot of it has been on the wealth areas. A lot of it has been on the wholesale advisory areas. A lot of it has been also coming from our cross-border flows. FX, through the treasury client sales, has been a big contributor, and this has allowed us to capture the growth opportunities that we see across ASEAN at the moment. And then the fourth C, Capabilities, this is all about becoming Simpler, Better, Faster. And this is something that we're very obsessed about. We're starting to see it in the numbers. We are able to extract value from it. OpEx is declining. And that includes a lot of one-off transformation costs in there at the moment. But as all these one-off transformation costs roll off, we can expect to see OpEx declining further. And then lastly, this is with regards to the MYR 2 billion capital return plan that we announced in November last year. We started with MYR 700 million. We have MYR 1.3 billion to go. We are committed to execute on this plan supported by our current strong capital position. So with that, that is the end of our presentation and look forward to your questions. Thank you.
Chek Tan: Thank you, and Novan and Khairul. [Operator Instructions]. We have a few raised hands here. The first one comes from Peter Kong from Kenanga.
Peter Kong: Perhaps just let me start with 2 questions. The first one is a little bit more housekeeping. I attended the recent Niaga briefing, and there was a reduced guidance in terms of the concern on credit costs. And there was a very specific reason for the credit cost increase. which was relating to a OJK ruling on some of the vehicles we possess previously treated as inventory that now needs to be treated as a loan. And if this inventory vintage is more than 180 days, then it becomes impaired, et cetera, et cetera. I was just wondering, when it comes to the group level, how much has this change in accounting rule affect your credit cost at the group? And I would like to hear whether or not this actually increases your credit cost and -- but it's only a timing issue because you will later get it in your other income as well. So just to hear your thoughts on that. My second question is relating to some of the, I would say, the environment that we have -- we are in today. We do see some of the banks that have reported before you strike a bit of a more cautious tone with regards to NIM going forward. And I note that one of your slides on liquidity coverage ratios, especially for CIMB Bank, CIMB Islamic locally, they seem to be still on an increasing trend. And we see some of your other competitors have already started to allow their LCRs to come off a bit. So I was just wondering why is there such a divergence? And is there scope for you to maybe optimize this as well as we go ahead if the environment gets a little bit more challenging. So those are my 2 questions.
Muhammad Amirudin: Okay. On your first question with regards to the new OJK rulings on multi-finance companies. So yes, you're right. It is a timing issue, and it hits different parts of the P&L. What used to hit us at the NOII line post the sale of the vehicle now, instead, will hit us at the ECL line. So it's different parts of the P&L, but it's a timing difference. Nonetheless, it will increase the ECL line for Indonesia. But given we are a large, diversified group, of course, there are other areas that are doing better. And therefore, our overall group guidance for credit costs will remain. But you are right, Indonesia specifically, there will be an impact because of the changing of the impact of the P&L lines, but it is a binding issue.
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: Yes. So just to add in terms of the number itself during the second quarter, so we do, of course, take it directly to the group, right? So for the second quarter, the number that impacted that retail ECL number is MYR 60 million for the second quarter. And like that said, we are a diversified group. And from an overall perspective, our credit charge guidance has been maintained at 25 to 35 basis points. We are getting during the second quarter, good recoveries coming through from Singapore. So that has offset some of that downgrade in guidance, if you want to say in Indonesia in terms of the credit cost guidance. The second one in terms of our LCR. So there are many components to managing our liquidity. I think from an overall NIM perspective, if you look at our second quarter and also LDR, LCR, that has improved during the second quarter, and this is funding our total assets growth during the quarter and also given the pipeline that we are seeing for the third quarter. And we have built up some of the wholesale funding side, which is positive because on the LDR, wholesale funding is part of the LDR. On LCR as well, wholesale funding is part of that. However, we do manage our liquidity also on an NSFR basis, which we don't disclose and most banks do not disclose the NSFR. So we are still very optimal in terms of NSFR. It is stable. It's not declining or improving. So that's another area of consideration when we manage our liquidity. So in terms of the optimal level of liquidity, we are maintaining that optimal level, and we will continue to do so. And it's where we'll continue ramping up in terms of our retail deposits and also CASA from an overall perspective.
Muhammad Amirudin: But on your question on the NIM, I mean, yes, I saw the various results on the Street also, results are mixed. I hear you on the NIM cautious tone. I mean we are also, I guess, cautious. I mean our NIM for Malaysia declined 3 basis points for the first half, so from 1.8% to 7%. And I think the reason why we managed to defend the NIM is also as a result of our focus on our cash strategy as part of the 4Cs for Forward30. So it's really going out there to win cash without rates. And it's not easy, but it's something that the entire troop is all relentless and focused on, which is why I think we've managed the NIM compression well. But yes, having said that, look, I think this is something that we continue to be vigilant, and we want to continue to defend and this is a key part of our 4Cs execution.
Chek Tan: Our next question comes from Aakash from UBS.
Aakash Rawat: I hope you can hear me. The first one is just on provisions. So apart from that MYR 60 million provisions for the retail sector that you said was because of Indonesia regulations. I was -- I think there was other included well in the provisions, right, for other sectors, including retail. So I'm just wondering if there's any underlying deterioration that you're seeing? And provisions, overall, are running very close to the top end of your guidance. If this sort of credit quality deterioration continues, is there a risk that we might miss the guidance for the full year? That would be my first question.
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: So I think where we have been conservative is in terms of our reallocation of overlays, right? So it's the timing of that reallocation. So if you look at our first quarter, we did have some write-backs both coming through on the retail side and also the non-retail side. So the pickup that you see on a Q-on-Q basis, number one, is the one that we discussed in terms of that OJK change treatment. But predominantly, right, the major driver is really our overlays, and that is preemptive. So to your question, if we do see -- so for now, our underlying asset quality has remained from a broad perspective, stable. We do have that overlays that we have already booked during the second quarter if we do face any deterioration in certain segments of the asset quality. So both on retail and non-retail, we've put aside those overlays related to any inflationary pressure coming through from the macro backdrop coming through on the uncertainties from the Middle Eastern prices. And that's where if there is any deterioration. But for now, we're not seeing any, this will provide us that buffer to take on that deterioration of asset quality.
Aakash Rawat: Okay. Very clear. Second question is on the net interest margin. So just based on your current view on the deposit competition, when do you expect the Malaysian NIM to trough? Or do you think this compression in NIM continues for the next 1 to 2 quarters?
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: Okay. I think overall, right, I think just to be clear in terms of the view on NIM and LCR, I think we are looking on a full year basis at the group. We do look at margins year-on-year to be flat to minus 10 basis points contraction for the full year. As at half year, we're already seeing that 10 basis points margin contraction being translated. We do have some levers to mitigate any further pressure coming through in Malaysia. And those levers are 2-pronged. One is in terms of the FDs. We do want to ramp up a bit on our FDs because we have raised a bit more of the expensive wholesale funding. So we managed -- if we manage to optimize that in the coming quarters with that strong execution on FDs, that will mitigate some of that headwind that the industry is talking about is number one. Number two, CASA in Malaysia has continued to be strong. So we do need to double down in terms of our CASA growth during the second half of the year. So these are some of the levers that is in execution to, hopefully, give that stabilization of NIMs. The competitive environment is still very dynamic, both on the wholesale funding side and also on the retail side. But our expectation is that there could be some small pressure coming through a few basis points, but we are relatively optimistic that we can get stable margins from where we are at today of the second quarter numbers with the execution of FDs and CASA.
Aakash Rawat: Okay. Understood. And third question is on wealth. So wealth has been a key growth driver for yourself. And in this particular quarter, we saw a good level of strength for you and for the sector in general. I'm just trying to understand how much of this do you think is market related versus how much of this is really sustainable structural, genuine inflow that is happening? Any thoughts on that would be very helpful.
Muhammad Amirudin: Yes. So big picture, certainly, I think ASEAN is seeing some level of inflows. The disruptions that we're seeing in the Middle East, some diversifying away from the U.S., although that is still predominantly the market, but there's some diversifying away. So even at the margins, it still makes a difference. So I -- we do see structurally a lot of these shifts coming to ASEAN. Of course, there are winners and losers within ASEAN. And, at the moment, I think the 2 big markets that is getting a lot of inflow is, number one, Singapore, where we have -- where we do have a strong presence as a challenger bank. And secondly, also, to some extent, Malaysia. So we are seeing macro-wise, some inflow as part of structural shifts within ASEAN. And then whether it is sustainable or not, then that depends on the strength of the franchise. And that is where CIMB is different compared to a lot of our peers in the region. CIMB is always known as a strong wholesale bank. Wholesale bank is our specialty. We bank all the top issuers in the region. And we advise top issuers in terms of issuances of, for example, capital market instruments. We package all these instruments ourselves into wealth products that gets distributed to our customers. Unlike a number of our peers that actually white-label products from other financial institutions, we at CIMB manufacture and package the products ourselves. So that is one key difference between CIMB and our peers. And I'm a big believer in that and I'm confident, in fact that this is what differentiates us versus everyone else. So number one, there's been inflow. Number two, to keep the inflow, you need the products, you need the franchise, and that is where we are differentiated versus the rest. And then our locations, right, of Malaysia, Singapore, where we leverage a lot on the Malaysia, Singapore corridor. We leverage a lot on the Indonesia, Singapore corridor. That is another part of our endowment that different us. So this is one part of the business that we are -- I mean, this is a key pillar for us under Forward30. It's a key pillar under our third C, of Cross-sell, and the second C, of Cash, and is a big focus for us. And that's why we introduced a new segment called Private Wealth about a month ago because we're banking the preferred banking well. We're banking the private banking well, but then we then realize that there is a category in the middle that is also very large and probably less tapped, and we are playing in that segment now.
Aakash Rawat: Great. Very clear. Just last question, if you could share your latest thinking on capital allocation, specifically with regards to Niaga and TNG Digital?
Muhammad Amirudin: So first, we are always on the lookout of underperforming businesses or businesses that will struggle to scale and win over the next few years. And we demonstrated that first with Thai auto. We are evaluating options for other areas as well. And then at right timing, of course, we'll make the necessary announcements. But using Thai auto as an example, we are down to complete that in a few months. We'll then go through the process of repatriating the capital back to group. That capital then needs to be reallocated to other growth areas. And that is what we are evaluating right now. We have identified some of the areas that we know we can win, and we'll make the necessary announcements at the appropriate time. And then once we've exhausted that and there's still excess capital, as we have proven in the past, we will then consider to return that to shareholders, but only after going through that thought process. Touch 'N Go, that is something very special that CIMB has in our platform. Compared to any of our peers, everyone is a universal bank. They have their digital offerings. We have our universal bank and digital offerings together with Touch 'N Go. And Touch 'N Go serves 2 out of 3 Malaysians. It is the dominant e-wallet in the country that is performing very well. In fact, it's outperforming beyond what we have projected for since it broke even not too long ago. As Khairul mentioned, year-on-year growth in profit is more than 100% in the first half. It's hit MYR 90 million profit. We are seeing a very strong trajectory there. That's certainly an area that, as I mentioned earlier, we're going to double down further to leverage the strength of our universal bank platform and the Touch 'N Go. With regards to Niaga, Niaga is an important part of the business. It is facing headwinds and challenges today, both on the macro front as well as FX when we convert the Niaga results back to group. But look, at the end of the day, we are in Indonesia for the long term. There are short-term challenges today. What's most important is we remain close to our customers. We make sure that we bank the right customer segments within Indonesia. And we make sure that we grow responsibly, we grow safely. That is basically the focus for Niaga.
Chek Tan: Can we move the line to Jin Han of Affin, please? Jin Han?
Jin Chin: A few questions from me. One -- the first question would be, there's a lot of noise in the loan loss charge up to first half. Would it be possible to actually deconstruct that credit cost on an underlying basis, so excluding any kind of overlay write-backs or reclassifications, what would the underlying credit cost actually look like? And looking at the December balance of about MYR 984 million in overlays at the time, I think it's accounting. How far away is the current base from that level?
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: Yes. So I think in terms of the net charge, there is a net overlay charge. I think if you exclude the noises, right, and if you also exclude the significant recoveries from Indonesia and also Singapore, from a credit cost perspective, it is very stable Q-on-Q.
Jin Chin: Okay. Got it. Got it. And how far is the current overlays from that MYR 984 million December number currently?
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: We have -- we made a net addition to the December number.
Jin Chin: Okay. Got it. Second question would be, I mean, I do note the new guidance of flat to minus 10. Please do correct me if I'm wrong, but I think previously, it was minus 5% to plus 5%. So I mean, with this relatively new target in mind, where does net interest income point to in terms of that growth? Are we still looking at maybe a mid-single-digit kind of contraction, including FX? Or do you think it could actually get better?
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: Yes, 2 things, right? So I mean, as you can see on Novan's last slide, our guidance has remained constant versus last quarter. So that's what you rightly pointed out, it's only the NIM that has come off in terms of guidance, right? The offset is coming from 2 parts. One is the total asset growth. And this is back to Novan's point in terms of leveraging our asset platform and asset flows, and that has been fairly good in terms of total assets, where we are at the higher end of our 2026 guidance in terms of total asset growth. So that's number one. Number two, our NOII growth has also been good on the wealth side and the client franchise side. So if you look at our NOII growth for the year versus our earlier expectation, this has also been good, where the second quarter trading number, even though down, is still very well-supported at a decent level. So that is where the offsets are coming through from our guidance of NIM coming off and hence why the guidance that Novan highlighted has been constant versus last quarter.
Jin Chin: Got it. Got it. Sorry, just bear with me one last question in terms of the wealth income because I think the chart is, actually, relatively new. I would like to understand a little bit in terms of what the splits look like between the various kinds of primary products. So things like Banca, Unit Trust, structured products, a little bit more color into what actually provides more contribution and what provides less would be great.
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: Yes, good question. We do have those numbers, but we are displaying or disclosing this in phases, right? So as you rightly pointed out, those are the main components of that wealth number. As and when we start gaining further traction and we can talk about some of our plans in those certain areas, we will start disclosing a bit more in terms of the breakdown of that wealth component. And then yes, as you rightly pointed out, this is a new disclosure where we want to highlight our traction on the wealth business.
Muhammad Amirudin: Yes. So, I mean, as you rightly point out, a new disclosure. So it's evolving. We started disclosing it on the NOII side. But of course, the wealth business have components of NII and NOIII. I think we were seeing how best to do this separate wealth disclosure. But yes, we will be going into those further details I think, in our next presentation.
Chek Tan: The next question comes from Harsh Modi, JPMorgan.
Harsh Modi: One question. Free float requirement in Indonesia, a bit of a tough one to deal with right now. How are you thinking about it? Can you get exemption? And if not, what are the possible options there?
Muhammad Amirudin: We are exploring all options, Harsh. So at the moment, we are exploring how it could be like if there was a capital market trade, but not a typical type of capital market private placement where you place at a discount to the current price, which is liquid, but more a re-IPO type of trade where it's based on our ROE as opposed to based on the current trading price, which is not reflective of the fundamentals of the business. So that is one. We are also speaking to the regulators with regards to what do we then discover during this exercise. So we are exploring all options, and we've been doing that for quite some time now since the announcement of the rules came out.
Harsh Modi: Right. So basically, a long, long time ago, CIMB was able to place, I want to say, at a premium to one of the Japanese banks. So something on those lines are based on underlying profitability if there is a strategic investor who comes in and buy. But it's tough to -- the strategic investor won't be free float, right? So basically, you have to sell above current price for you to get a fair value, but that seems very tough. So the only hope is regulator agrees that it is very tough to do it in a commercial manner gives exemption. But if they don't, then it's a really tough choices to increase float in either way, right?
Muhammad Amirudin: Yes, I don't see it that way, Harsh, because it could be a placement to a few institutional investors or if you want to call it strategic, right, and still satisfy the free float definition. So it could also take that form, Harsh. But more importantly is we need to explore all options, and we then need to assess it, and we will be discussing with the regulator with regards to the best option to take.
Chek Tan: We have no other questions at the moment. [Operator Instructions]
Harsh Modi: Sorry, if there are no questions, can I take one more?
Unknown Executive: Sure.
Harsh Modi: More on the operations side of it. It seems Niaga numbers are fine, group numbers. There seems to be a very significant shift in the way deposits are raised or funding is raised in Malaysia. So could you talk both in Indonesia and in Malaysia, how is the overall funding environment shifting? Because in Malaysia, we have moved to loan to funding, people looking more at LCR and NSFR rather than B&M focused on LDR. So KLIBOR has moved up beyond the rate expectations. Indonesia, we know the funding situation is tight. So in both of these markets over the next 6 months, should we expect overall cost of funds to go up or not really? And what are the drivers and -- of funding in particular and a bit more granularity as to how you're thinking about these 2?
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: From a sector perspective, we go country by country. So in Indonesia, I think the competition still remains very stiff and liquidity still remains tough. We continue to have -- having to increase in terms of our rates to continue to get those volumes coming through. So from a headline perspective, yes, there is that headwind coming through, but we have 2 levers in Indonesia. One -- well, 3 levers. One, fundamentally, our CASA growth in Indonesia has been good, and we continue to double down that fundamental strategy of CASA growth. And that is mostly on the wholesale side, but to a certain extent on the consumer side as well. So that's number one. That's long term, and that will have also an impact -- a good impact in the second half of the year. Two other things is in terms of our repos. So we did build up a bit of our repos during the second quarter. And now as we start building up our MDs, which is still cheaper than the repo, even though with repricing up, we will manage to optimize the cost our liabilities overall. So that is the plan. Thirdly, what we haven't done -- what we haven't executed fully is the repricing of loans. We have done that a bit during the second quarter and towards the beginning of third quarter, but there is still a lot of opportunity to do so. But that is, of course, subject to the competitive environment as well. But there is one lever that we are also looking at in terms of repricing up the loans where we have that -- those bilateral agreements with that 100 basis points rate hike. So these 3 things will partially or may offset some of the liquidity pressure that we see in Indonesia. Now moving on to Malaysia. There is some pockets. Liquidity at the system level remains stable, but for Malaysia. So there's no tightness in liquidity, just to be very clear. But there are some pockets or segments where the competition is fairly stiff. We are competing for those deposits. Number one, as what you may have alluded to, KLIBOR is going up. So wholesale funding, there is some competition on the wholesale funding side. So that's where there will be a creep up in terms of the rates. And that's where the offset is us ramping up on the retail FD in the second half. So we've grown that very well in the second quarter. We're going to continue growing the retail FDs, and that's where the opportunity to offset some of that headwind where we are able to attract some of that wholesale funding that we built up in the second quarter. So that is the plan to offset some of the headwind in Malaysia.
Muhammad Amirudin: Yes. And then we have also other levers, Harsh. I mean one of it is Singapore is a branch for Malaysia and Singapore has seen a lot of deposits due to the fact that it's a very liquid market. So that is also another lever for us to raise deposits. We've also been raising deposits out of Hong Kong, and we do then use that to fund some of our assets. So we are also using our offshore offices where the liquidity is a lot more flush to raise deposits. But the point on Malaysia is there is liquidity. The question is price, and therefore, it goes down to deposit type. And that's why it's retail CASA and FD that is crucial together with commercial, and those are the areas that we are double downing on in the second half.
Harsh Modi: Got it. And if I could just understand what does that mean for half-on-half means? Do you think we can improve from here?
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: Yes, I think, Harsh, with the execution of those offsets, right, both in Indonesia and Malaysia, I think we can -- we are targeting for half-on-half or sequential NIMs to be relatively stable.
Harsh Modi: If I may, one last question. Any trends in asset quality and overall -- okay. But any particular segments in any of your core markets which are flushing amber or everything seems to be...
Muhammad Amirudin: So in terms of asset quality, there is nothing sporadic that is causing it to be flashing ever. There are certain one-off cases, very specific cases that we are dealing with, which is what you would already see in the current asset quality numbers. There are also previous products that we were growing in the previous years that you will see heightened asset quality numbers in the current numbers, which we have already stopped. So for example, fintech lending, which we actually used to grow in Indonesia quite a bit, we have stopped that at the start of this year. But we are seeing the remnants of the ECL in the numbers today, but that will basically end soon. So if you're asking about something widespread, no, specific one-off cases here and there, yes, doesn't form a trend. And for certain products that we know of the deteriorating asset quality, which is already reflected in ECL, we have stopped that. So that is where we are today.
Chek Tan: I think we can take the last question from Rahul Jain from MFS in Singapore.
Rahul Jain: I just had 2 follow-ons. First is coming back to the margins discussion. So last quarter, I thought you were sounding a lot more confident in managing margins. But this quarter, I think the guidance has changed. But at the same time, the growth guidance has been stronger. So just trying to understand what are the underlying dynamics that are playing out. We did see with some other banks also where the growth has been stronger, but the compromise has been on the margins. So is it to take away that banks are compromising a little bit on the margin side to fund the growth? But technically speaking, if the growth dynamics are stronger, you should be able to price up these loans if there is a demand side challenges. So that's question number one. And I have one more small question after this, I'll ask.
Muhammad Amirudin: Okay. I mean the biggest change, Rahul, from when we did the first quarter to now is Indonesia. I mean, during a very short period from May to June, there was 100 basis points hike in interest rates. And some of it was not expected by the market, but BI did it to defend the rupiah. So that then led to some distortions or disruptions in how banks have been planning funding. So that is one disruption and one change from the previous discussion we had where we're seeing NIMs bottoming out to where it is today. And you are right to mitigate that is to then pass on the increase in interest rates into the loans because the deposits you straight away, but the loans will take some time for us to pass it through, especially on the wholesale side. So that is something ongoing. We've already started passing through some, but there's still some way to go for us to pass through those rates. So I mean, Indonesia has been one key area. I think other markets like Malaysia has been pretty stable for us. I mean, year-on-year, we had 3 basis points compression when the policy rate went down by 25 basis points. So I think Malaysia, in terms of our funding strategy to fund our asset growth has been sound, although we do have areas that we want to optimize further, and we do see opportunity for that. Thailand, on the other hand, despite having a lot of rate cuts, we've managed to increase the NIM, as you can see on Page 11. So it's -- I mean, the main difference was Indonesia, but that is timing, as you said. It's down to execution of us passing through those loans.
Rahul Jain: Got it. And just a follow-on to this point. So if the rates were to go up further in the other parts of ASEAN, would we witness some more compression? Is that already priced into your commentary when you say the margins are going to be relatively stable in 2H? And if it is, then would it be in the later part of the 2H or from now itself, you should be able to manage the NIMs better?
Khairulanwar Bin Rifaie: So taking into account -- Rahul, taking into account the rate outlook in terms of our guidance for 2026. But I think the biggest driver, of course, Indonesia being one. But Malaysia, we are expecting rates to be stable. If we do get a rate hike in Malaysia, it's actually positive -- it'll be positive to the tune of MYR 80 million to MYR 100 million on an annualized basis.
Rahul Jain: Got it. Got it. The other question I had was on the capital allocation. So you did a good job in Thailand. But let's say, if I take a 3 years view, can you just quickly refresh how the RWA mix could look like, how the PBT mix could look like? There's been some good progress on the fee income side as well. So capital allocation and the PBT breakup the next 3 years, how would it look like to the investors?
Muhammad Amirudin: So we are actively evaluating underperforming businesses. It could be countries, it could be segments within countries that what we done in Thailand, and we are evaluating how that could look like in the next few years. We are and we'll be considering those options, right? So very difficult for me to give you a sense of that breakdown now because we are -- we do anticipate changes in the portfolio over the next 3 years. And that changes will then lead to differences in capital allocation. I think the takeaway here is will there be further changes to the portfolio and how it gets allocated? The answer is yes. Where will it be? I'm not in a position to disclose at the moment.
Rahul Jain: Got it. But just to reconfirm that will be ROE accretive, I suppose.
Muhammad Amirudin: Yes. We are evaluating areas that are ROE disruptive. And we are seeing if there's a chance for it to be ROE accretive. If it cannot and it cannot be scaled also, then like what we did with Thai auto, that will be the action that we will take. It will be decisive. So there will be changes. I'm just not in a position to tell you where the changes right now. If you look into our portfolio, deeply enough, you probably could get a sense, but I'm not going to disclose that at the moment. I'm not in a position to be able to disclose that.
Chek Tan: And that's the last question for the day. I would like to pass the line back to Novan for his closing remarks.
Muhammad Amirudin: So thank you very much, everyone, for joining us on a Friday afternoon. Fellow Malaysians, I would like to wish everyone [Foreign Language], enjoy the long weekend with your family, and I look forward to meeting all of you soon in our future engagements. Thank you.
Chek Tan: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our briefing for today. Once again, thank you for joining us. We wish you a very good evening ahead.