Results Announcement Date: 25 February 2026 (Closing Share Price: RM4.95)

Public Bank’s Net Profit of RM1.88 billion was up 4.2% from pcp with slight gains in Net Interest, Islamic Banking and Insurance Services Income qoq. A dividend of 12 sen per share was declared bringing full year payout to 22.5 sen against full year EPS of 37.4 sen. For FY2025:

• Net Profit clocked in at RM7.22 billion which is a 1.1% increases from FY2024. This includes a higher loan impairment provision of RM88 million for the year.
• Net Interest Income expanded from RM9.45 billion in FY2024 to RM9.54 billion in FY2025.
• Profit Before Tax, Impairments and Writebacks came in at RM9.62 bil. This is growth rate of 2.1% from RM9.42 bil in FY2024.
• Customer Deposits grew 3.2% from RM433.3 billion to RM447.1 billion, compared to loan growth of 5.1%.
• A slight weakening of Individual Deposits from RM226.5 bil to RM221.0 bil was offset by an increase in deposits from Business Enterprises from RM115.8 bil to RM129.5 bil.
• CASA Deposit Ratio (Demand Deposits & Savings Deposits) increased slightly from 27.8% to 28.0%.

Q4 Highlights
Operating Expenses were up 7.8% from pcp and a higher tax expense.
Cost-Income Ratio of 35.7%, together with previous quarter figure 34.9% reveals a concerning negative trend when compared to FY 2023 (33.8%) and 2024 (34.8%).

2026 Key Guidance maintained:
ROE of 12.0% to 13.0% (Net Profit of RM7.2 to RM7.8 billion / EPS of 37 to 40 sen)
Loan growth of 4% to 5%
Double-digit percentage growth in Non-Interest Income
Net Credit Cost in the single digit
Net Interest Margin slight compression bias
Dividend payout ratio of around 60%

However some analysts are flagging possible dividend upside for PBBank as management is expecting an even higher potential CET1 uplift of slightly above 1.0ppt with the Basel 3 reform adoption in July 2026 compared to its previous guidance of 0.5 to 1.0ppt. A 2026 CET1 uplift to 14.9% potentially would give the bank capacity of raise its dividend payout to 65%+ as compared to 60% currently while keeping CET1 above 13.5% to 14%. in line management’s comfort level.

Further Reading:
BNM’s proposed capital requirement increase for banks credit positive — Moody’s (TheEdge 9/4/19)
A boon for Public Bank (TheStar 5/3/26)
Banks’ dividend guidance fails to excite but analysts still expect some positive surprises ahead (TheEdge 14/3/26)