KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd are supportive of the move by Bank Negara to introduce measures for property loans and credit card applications to control the household debt level.

Maybank deputy president and community financial services head Lim Hong Tat said the move was healthy for the property market but the bank did not expect it to have much impact on its loans.

“We don’t see too much impact (on credit card business) as we are stringent in our credit card applications all the while. We are also promoting our debit card,” he told a press conference after the prize-giving ceremony for Maybank 50th Anniversary Rewards Campaign yesterday.

The bank has 3 million debit cards 1.4 million credit cards in circulation.

Asked whether the bank expected Bank Negara to introduce more measures to control the household debt level, Lim said: “We would leave it to the authority.”

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Malaysia group executive director and chief executive officer of consumer banking Steve Bertamini said: “We very much follow whatever regulations that are in place. We have no issue with Bank Negara’s requirements and we will follow them.

“There is always an impact but the challenge is how we can innovate and execute better than others to ensure that people come to us.”

The household debt level in the country has been a topic that has generated much discussion recently.

The central bank recently introduced a maximum loan-to-value-ratio of 70% for people wanting to buy their third house or more and has clamped down the availability of easy credit to the low-income group by raising the minimum income to RM24,000 from RM18,000 for credit cards.

The three-phased rewards campaign, which started last year, had helped to boost the bank’s market leadership share for consumer loans to 16.7%, total deposits to 18.6% and auto finance loans to 18.3% last year.

For 2009, the bank’s market share was 16.5% in consumer loans, 18.4% in total deposits and 17% in auto finance loans.

“We achieved growth in deposits for the whole of 2010 of RM4.8bil or 6.7% over the previous year. Similarly, consumer loans increased 15.2% or RM10.8bil, while hire purchase loans grew RM2.9bil or 14.1%,” Lim said.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered launched its 8-Minute Service Pledge yesterday, where the bank is committed to a minimum standard of service at its branches in the country.

SOURCE: The Star