Don T Get Carried Away By Strong Dividend Says Epf Chief

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EPF CEO Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn was pleased that 70% of its members did not make any withdrawals from Account 3, also known as the Flexible Account.
SHAH ALAM: EPF has cautioned the public not to get carried away by the 6.3% dividend payout announced today for both its conventional and shariah accounts, the highest since 2017.
The total payout for both accounts amounted to a record high RM73.24 billion, or RM63.05 billion for conventional savings and RM10.19 billion for shariah savings.
“It’s very easy to get caught up with the strong market growth,” EPF CEO Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn told reporters after the yearly dividend briefing at its headquarters here today.
“We must understand that the market will go up and down, and we must anticipate it.”
EPF declared a 5.5% rate for conventional savings and 5.4% for shariah savings in 2023. It was 5.35% and 4.7% for conventional and shariah accounts, respectively, the year before that.
Zulqarnain said EPF was focussing on long-term investment strategies such as the diversification of portfolios to handle fluctuations in the market.
He said the fund witnessed a surge in voluntary contributors, from around 902,000 in 2023 to 1.2 million last year, a 33% increase.
A total of 795,000 of last year’s contributors were from the informal sector while the rest were from the formal sector.
He said EPF data showed that 70% of the self-contributors contributed less than RM5,000 a year, which showed that they are low-income workers – not rich investors trying to exploit the programme.
EPF members may voluntarily add up to RM100,000 to their accounts each year.
Zulqarnain was also pleased that 70% of its members did not make any withdrawals from Account 3, also known as the Flexible Account.
EPF introduced Account 3 last year to meet the short-term needs of contributors. The account holds 10% of members’ total savings and can be withdrawn at any time.
“This shows that the majority of Malaysians intend to keep their EPF savings for their retirement,” he said.
Separately, EPF data showed that its Chinese members recorded the highest average savings of RM151,988, followed by Indians (RM72,582), Malays (RM43,843), other races (RM31,038) and other Bumiputeras (RM25,828).
EPF among largest pension funds in the world
Zulqarnain said EPF was the 13th-largest pension fund in the world and the fifth largest in Asia as of September 2024 with a total fund size of US$247 billion.
“We will continue to grow and foresee growing over the next two decades at roughly the same rate — 8%-9% compound annual growth rate,” he said.
He said EPF’s investment assets stood at RM1.25 trillion as of Dec 31, 2024, of which 63% was invested domestically. - FMT

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