CMB has a large and affluent retail customer base and a well-diversified corporate client roster with long-term strategic relationships that support deposit stability, in our view. Deposit growth of 7.1% in the first nine months of 2024 surpassed loan growth of 3.8%, underpinning the bank's strong funding and liquidity profile. CMB's annualized ROAA in the first nine months of 2024 was 1.33%, well above the sector average of 0.68%. The bank's RAC ratio was 8.0% at end-June 2024, broadly flat compared with 8.1% at end-2023. CMB has a well-diversified loan portfolio, reasonable collateral coverage, and greater exposure to higher-tier cities, where collateral values are more resilient. Despite some strains in retail asset quality, the bank's combined nonperforming and special-mention loan
