Chart of the Week: Malaysian banks' total deposits vs CASA growth

Deposits increased US$1.5b in January 2017.

Total system deposits rose a sizeable MYR13.3b (US$2.9b) MoM in Dec 2016, due in part to BNM’s new measure in Dec 2016 to encourage exporters to convert 75% of their proceeds into Ringgit, says Maybank Kim Eng. The uptrend continued into Jan 2017 with a MYR6.7b (US$1.5b) MoM increase in deposits.

This, however, was mainly due to a MoM increase in Government related deposits, while enterprise deposits contracted a slight MYR605m (US$135m) MoM.

Here's more from Maybank Kim Eng:

Positively, deposit growth was a higher 3.1% YoY in Jan 2017 versus 2.0% YoY in Dec 2016, while CASA expanded at a faster rate of 5.8% YoY vs 5.0% YoY in Dec 2016.

By deposit holder, retail deposits grew at a faster pace of 6.0% YoY versus 5.1% YoY in Dec 2016 but business deposits contracted 0.3% YoY while government deposits contracted 0.1% YoY (versus -2.3% YoY and -3.6% YoY respectively in Dec 2016).