MAYBANK Singapore registered a lower net profit for the third quarter of 2016 compared to a year ago after the Malaysian bank set aside higher provisioning for impaired loans.

Net profit for Q3 came in at S$175.99 million, compared with S$298.51 million a year ago.

The bank said on Thursday that the provisions were made as part of its "proactive measures to manage specific accounts'' given the current operating environment.

Overall, operations in Singapore continued to be impacted by the subdued economic environment. The Singapore operations recorded a marginal 3.7 per cent decline in net income to S$593.16 million.

Net fee-based income rose 25.6 per cent, boosted by a rise in treasury income, but this was offset by a 16.5 per cent dip in net fund-based income as higher funding costs led to a compression in net interest margin.

Although system-wide loans in Singapore registered a 5 per cent drop during the nine months, Maybank said it saw a much smaller decline of only 1.9 per cent compared with a year earlier.

Deposits growth stood at a healthy 18.7 per cent, far outpacing industry growth of 1.0 per cent.

At group level, Maybank reported that net income fell 5.4 percent to 1.8 billion ringgit in the three months ended September 30, 2016 compared to a year ago when it enjoyed a lower tax charge. Analysts polled by Reuters had estimated net income of 1.08 billion ringgit.