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espite loan demand being weakened by a sluggish economy, three private lenders — Bank Danamon, Maybank Indonesia and OCBC NISP — have seen their net profits grow by a double-digit margin in the first quarter of the year thanks to greater cost-and management-efficiency.

Publicly listed Bank Danamon, which is owned by Asia Financial, a unit of Singapore’s Temasek, booked Rp 814 billion (US$61.6 million) in profits during the first three months of this year, rising 18 percent year-on-year (yoy) from Rp 687 billion in the same period of 2015.

Danamon’s disbursed loans, however, decreased by 7 percent to Rp 125.8 trillion in the January-March period from Rp 193.8 trillion in the corresponding period last year on a drop in credit demand, especially in the automotive sector, one of the bank’s main growth engines.

Danamon’s loans to the automotive industry are managed by its subsidiary Adira Finance, which also disburses financing to other consumer sectors. Adira saw an 8 percent yoy decrease in overall financing to Rp 45.1 trillion in the first quarter of this year.

Despite its poor performance in loan disbursement, Danamon was able to post positive growth in net profits as its efficiency increased, with operating costs falling 9 percent to Rp 2.1 trillion, while its fee-based income increased by the same percentage to Rp 967 billion.

“Our loans slowed, but our fee-based income grew and we saw greater efficiency, as expected by the Financial Services Authority [OJK] of all banks,” Danamon finance director Vera Eve Lim said in a press conference on Tuesday.

The country’s weak economic growth of 4.7 percent last year has pressured nationwide loan demand, leading the domestic banking industry to see lending grow by only 8.2 percent yoy in February.

Better management of costs and income also triggered a 73.7 percent increase in Maybank Indonesia’s net profit to Rp 444 billion in the first quarter, from Rp 256 billion in the same period of 2015.

The bank’s net interest income grew 8.8 percent to Rp 1.73 trillion, while fee-based income increased by 10.7 percent to Rp 687 billion in the first three months of the year, driven by treasury, bancassurance and other fees.

At the same time, the lender’s costs decreased slightly by 0.8 percent to Rp 1.44 trillion through a continued strategic cost-management program amid modest overall loan growth of 4.8 percent yoy to Rp 112.9 trillion in the first quarter of this year.

The bank, part of Malaysian Banking Berhad (Maybank), saw three segments of its loans, namely sharia, business and retail banking, grow by 25.4 percent, 11.3 percent and 6.8 percent yoy, respectively, while corporate lending slid by 9.8 percent yoy in the first quarter.

“To expedite business growth and outpace the competition, we have taken the strategic decision to merge business banking and retail banking into one integrated directorate called Community Financial Services [CFS],” Maybank Indonesia president director Taswin Zakaria said.

Meanwhile, OCBC NISP, the local arm of Singapore-based OCBC Bank, booked a 23 percent yoy increase in net profits to Rp 457 billion in the first quarter, driven by managed growth in costs and expanding business.

Despite weak loan demand lately, the bank posted 22 percent yoy loan growth to Rp 85.1 trillion in the first three months, focusing mainly on the SME and consumer segment.

“We started 2016 by maintaining a healthy loan and funding portfolio amid a challenging market,” OCBC NISP president director Parwati Surjaudaja said.