The Monetary Policy Committee  (MPC) of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) meets every three months to announce decisions made in managing the country’s monetary policy. One of these decisions is whether to raise, maintain or decrease the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR). What is the OPR rate? The Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) is the interest rate at which a bank lends to another bank. This rate is set by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). This rate has an effect on the country’s employment, economic growth and inflation. It is an indicator of the health of a country’s overall economy and banking system. For ..read more

Last year, Rakuten Trade made waves alongside Tesla Malaysia’s debut, launching the innovative ‘Tesla Share Giveaway’ Campaign. The fully digital broking services provider followed this with the ‘Trade Smart & Win A Tesla’ Campaign, which offered a lucky Malaysian the chance to Tesla Model Y. Tesla winner had made over 200 trades in Q4 2024 According to the statement provided by Rakuten Trade, one of the fortunate winners was Mr. Yee Yit Tong, a 39-year-old engineer from Tapah, Perak. He had begun using Rakuten Trade in 2019. Yee praised the platform’s user-friendly interface, low brokera ..read more

GX Bank Berhad (GXBank), Zurich General Insurance Malaysia Berhad and Zurich Life Insurance Malaysia Berhad, have just announced a 10-year exclusive bancassurance tripartite partnership to co-create micro protection products for underserved Malaysians. Through the use of data-driven insights and intuitive technologies, GXBank will work with Zurich Malaysia to create new and innovative insurance products that are simple, affordable, and user-friendly, to address customer pain points. The first product that is being developed is set to be released in the third quarter of 2024. It aims to  ..read more

Owning a home is one of the major life goals of most people. However, reaching that goal is often difficult and unrealistic if only relying on one’s salary. This is why most will choose to apply for a home loan to help pay for their home.  If you delve deep into the specifics, a home loan can be quite complex and difficult to understand. However, the most important thing to know is that you will be paying your lender a monthly fee plus interest for quite a long while. Considering how long these repayment terms tend to be, you will likely be racking up thousands of Ringgit worth of intere ..read more

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has recently put out a notice explaining that there will be a disruption to its online system on 10 to 11 May. The system is expected to come back online on 12 May. As such, EPF members are advised to plan their transactions accordingly during the disruption period. Source: EPF EPF Akaun Fleksibel (Account 3) to be implemented 11 May Based on the timeframe, the disruption will likely be taking place at the same time as the EPF’s account restructuring. It was only just recently that the EPF announced the launch of the hotly-debated Account 3, which is slate ..read more

The Road Transport Department (JPJ) has shared a media statement yesterday relating to BJAK. The statement announced that JPJ does not have any officinal arrangement with online insurance aggregator BJAK Sdn Bhd (BJAK). According to the JPJ statement, there is no authorisation from the Ministry of Transport (MOT) or JPJ with BJAK. The JPJ statement highlighted that BJAK’s claim that it’s road tax renewal services are approved by JPJ are untrue. This is in reference to online insurance aggregator’s claim that it’s online road tax renewals have been audited, verified, and approved by JPJ. BJAK ..read more

The launch of EPF’s Account Fleksibel (Account 3) has been met with polarising opinions from Malaysians advocating for both sides of the equation. A survey conducted by The Star highlights this polarising opinion concerning transferring funds from their Akaun Sejahtera (Account 2) to the new Account 3. Those who would not opt-in lead slightly in the survey at 45.36% over those who would at 43.02%, while the remaining were undecided. While both sides have valid points, this writer believes that ultimately, having access to EPF Account Fleksibel is a good thing overall and here’s why. What is E ..read more

The Securities Commission has made several updates to their Investor Alert List, adding more companies that the public should be wary of. The Investor Alert List is a list maintained by the Securities Commission, and the list contains a collection of unauthorised websites, investment products, companies and individuals. The most recent updates were made on the 1st, 8th and the 25th of April, and also on the 2nd of May. The updates contained these companies; Potential clone entity – BelleoFX Potential clone entity – Trade Zella,  Potential clone entity – Wealth Tree Holdings Sdn Bhd,&nbs ..read more

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has recently identified two major offences committed by financial institutions which appear to contribute towards the proliferation of money laundering and terrorism financing activities. These offences include the failure of financial institutions to conduct Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and sanctions screening upon client onboarding, both deemed mandatory by BNM for reporting institutions. According to reporting by the New Straits Times, these measures were crucial for conducting risk evaluations, enabling effective Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of ..read more

Tech giant Microsoft has announced that they will be investing $2.2 billion (RM10.5 billion) to support Malaysia’s digitalisation endeavours, namely a new cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The investment will be Microsoft’s single largest investment in Malaysia, and it is part of a larger effort to bolster support for AI development in the South East Asian region. Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella announced the upcoming investment during his visit to Malaysia at the Microsoft Build AI Day event in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. According to news reports, he stated that Microsoft’s invest ..read more