Mr. Boontuck Wungcharoen, CEO of TMB, said "In the third quarter, loan growth was relatively flat due mainly to a decline in corporate loan while mortgage loan continued to grow. For the nine-month, loan expanded 2%. Meanwhile, deposit declined 5% from the previous quarter and 6% from last year, in line with the plan to balance deposit and loan volume. Loan to deposit ratio, therefore, stood at 97%. Nonetheless, the ratio of transactional deposit to total deposit increased from 36% to 38% as the Bank has focused in offering the best products and services to customers. The Bank also aims to offer the "Digital Banking" that allows customers to make the most of their lives. In September, the Bank relaunched "All Free" with improved features to offer unlimited free money transfers and bill payments. All Free robustly grew 15% from last quarter."
In the third quarter, net interest income rose 1.5%, supported by higher NIM to 3.24%. For the nine-month period, net interest income increased 7%. Non-interest income also increased 15% from the previous quarter, driven by the increase in fees from mutual fund and recovery in capital market income and foreign currency transactions. For the nine-month period, non-interest income was relatively flat. This was affected by a decline in loan-related fees, despite a continued growth in retail fees, especially bancassurance fee. Overall, total revenue in the third quarter was 8,965 million Baht, rose 5% from the last quarter and in the nine-month was 25,888 million Baht, also rose 5% from the same period last year.
The Bank continued to focus on efficiency enhancement. As a result, operating expenses of 4,124 million Baht was only 2% increase from last quarter. In the nine-month period, operating expenses was 12,074 million Baht, increased only 1.5% from the same period last year. Coupled with the revenue growth, the Bank further increased its PPOP to 4,811 million Baht in the third quarter, a rise of 8% from the last quarter. PPOP for the nine-month period was 13,833 million Baht, increased by 7% from the same period of last year.
TMB remains prudent in its business operation. The Bank set additional provision to cover 100% of NPL for an extra write off in this quarter. Consequently, NPL declined from the last quarter to 17,466 million Baht and NPL ratio reduced to 2.5%. The additional write-offs together with uncertain economic outlook prompted the Bank to set a relatively high provision of 2,541 million Baht in the third quarter and 6,416 million Baht in the nine-month period. As a result, coverage ratio remained strong at 142%. Consequently, net profit is reported at 1,845 million Baht, a decline of 14%, and 6,088 million Baht in the nine-month period, a decline of 9% from the same period last year.
The Bank continued to maintain high capital levels under Basel III framework. At the end of September, capital adequacy ratio (CAR) increased to 18.38% and Tier 1 ratio increased to 12.92%, which was comfortably higher than the Bank of Thailand's minimum requirements of CAR at 9.125% and Tier 1 at 6.625%.