(from left to right): Datuk Oh Chong Peng, Chairman of Alliance Financial Group Berhad, and Datuk Bridget Lai, Group Chief Executive Officer of Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad and Director of Alliance Financial Group Berhad sharing a light-hearted moment at the press conference.

Kuala Lumpur, 29 July 2009 - Alliance Financial Group comprising Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad (ABMB) and its subsidiaries will continue to strengthen its business fundamentals via four-prong strategies: pro-active capital management, liquidity management, robust risk management and credit portfolio quality, and effective operational efficiency and cost management.

Datuk Bridget Lai, Group Chief Executive Officer of ABMB and Director of Alliance Financial Group Berhad (AFGB) said, "These strategic priorities will place the Group in an advantageous position to seize market share when the economy recovers."

Despite today's challenging operating environment, Datuk Lai said that the Group's business strategies and three-year transformation initiatives have helped the Group to register a healthy net income growth of 4.0 per cent (or RM40.6 million) for the financial year ended 31 March 2009. Total net income for the year, which rose to RM1,058.1 million from RM1,017.5 million for the previous year, was achieved on the back of strong loans growth in the Consumer and Corporate Banking businesses and higher than industry's average Current Account & Savings Account (CASA) ratio. As at 31 March 2009, AFGB's CASA ratio stood at 33 per cent (ABMB: 32.2 per cent).

Meanwhile, the Group's asset quality continued to improve. As at 31 March 2009, its loan loss coverage stood at 99.7 per cent compared to 80 per cent as at 31 March 2008. Its net non-performing loans (NPL) ratio continued to decline from 3.3 per cent as at 31 March 2008 to 1.8 per cent as at 31 March 2009. The Group remains well capitalised with its core capital at 10.3 per cent (ABMB: 12.6 per cent), whilst its risk-weighted capital ratio (RWCR) stood at 14.7 per cent (ABMB: 13.1 per cent).

In a move towards preserving shareholders' value, a total dividend of 6.25 sen per share was paid by the Group for the financial year ended 31 March 2009. On 24 July 2009, the Group declared its first interim dividend of 1.3 sen per share for the financial year ending 31 March 2010, payable on 26 August 2009.

Datuk Lai added that in putting into practice the Group's strong stance on prudent financial management, the growth in its revenue line net income results were necessarily absorbed by stricter pre-emptive provisioning for potential credit losses.

Concurrently, the Group will seek to improve on its operational efficiency and cost management by further leveraging the synergies between its key businesses while exercising pro-active cost containment measures. It will also continue to raise the skill sets of the staff and deploy them in areas to maximise their effectiveness.

"It is essentially during times like these that Alliance Financial Group will prove its mettle as a prudent and resilient entity. We believe that our solid financial fundamentals, strong franchise and a culture of service excellence, supported by a robust risk management architecture which is complemented by our firm foundation of positive asset quality, loan loss coverage and capital positioning, will provide us with a competitive platform from which we are able to overcome the challenges before us.

"We are charting through turbulent times right now, but I am confident that our past three years' business transformation along with supportive government policies will propel us to take advantage of opportunities when the market recovers. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we believe that the Alliance Financial Group will record a reasonable performance at the end of the next financial year," Datuk Lai concluded.