Bank of East Asia hopes to achieve double-digit loan growth in Hong Kong this year, with a special emphasis on mortgages, according to Adrian Li Man-kiu, the head of the bank's corporate banking division.
Mr Li, a son of bank chairman David Li Kwok-po, did not rule out the possibility that the lender would use competitive mortgage rates, matching or going lower than its peer banks, to maintain market share. 'I am confident that we can maintain our market share at the fourth or fifth rank this year,' he said yesterday after the bank launched a new fixed-rate mortgage plan.
For the month of January, the bank was the city's second-largest mortgage lender, accounting for 11.23 per cent of new home loans during the period.
Analysts have lowered their profit forecast for the bank this year on expectations of slower lending growth and higher provisions for bad debt.
The bank's total loans to customers grew only 5.6 per cent last year. Loans for the purchase of residential property actually fell 33 per cent.
Mr Li said the decline in mortgages last year was due to the sale of HK$9.3 billion in mortgage loans to the Hong Kong Mortgage Corp because the bank wanted to secure more capital.
He added that BEA currently had ample deposits and would put more effort into property-related lending.
