Maybank's Q1 profit rises 19%

Kuala Lumpur

MALAYSIA'S largest lender by assets Maybank posted a better-than-expected 19 per cent jump in first-quarter net profit as it made more loans in South-east Asia and as a restructuring of troubled loans last year helped cut its impairment losses.

Malaysian banks are benefiting from a strengthening domestic economy and a recovery in commodity prices. For most of last year, the commodities downturn and the lingering shadow of a corruption scandal involving state-owned fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad had weighed on them.