wah....

agreed right....
even it is a ponzi skim...but it is back by goverm.
it will only collapse when goverm collapsed.

Most of the funds in ASB, ASW2020 and ASM are invested in reputable companies such as Petronas that are making billions of Ringgit every year.

In US, the US treasury is selling trillions worth of government bonds that also offer high return to other goverments. And how about some hedge funds that can offer 20% - 30% return ? The returns of some Hedge Funds are significantly higher than our ASB, ASW2020 or ASM but of course Hedge Funds are off-limit to average joe like us. Are those ponzi scheme ? Again, NO. You've got to be amazed with how things work in the world of finance.

If you really want to talk about Ponzi Scheme, i'd say Sukuk actually sounds more like Ponzi Scheme than any of the funds sold by PNB but i'm pretty sure Sukuk is fully legit and NOT a Ponzi Scheme

This post has been edited by MilesAndMore: Jun 14 2009, 04:21 PM

sukuk gave 5%...sound reasonable...
however asb give 10%+ and 100% confirmed earning.
in the world of business...where got things that have guaranteed earning.....

No. It is NOT TRUE at all. I have been an ASB account holder since 2002 with a capped savings at RM10,000. That was because i was still under 18-year-old then. I was allowed to increase my investment in ASB to a maximum of RM200,000 a few years later.

And for your information, we did not get 10% return since the late 90s. The best return for ASB was 12% or 13% but that was in the early 90s, so my mom said. And things work a bit differently for ASB compared to ASW2020 and ASM. For ASB there are dividend and bonus. The calculation for bonus is based on average of your total fund for the past 10 years. The dividend for last year was 7% only, and 1.75% for bonus. Each account holder will get a full 7% dividend but not the full 1.75% bonus unless you've been holding the same amount of fund in the last 10 years. So the bottom line is that we did not get 10%+ return as you claimed and ASNB also did not say about the 100% confirmed return. Where did you see this thing about 100% confirmed divided every year ? The ASNB only guaranteed that you won't loss your principle, just like many of the principle guaranteed funds out there offered by commercial banks and investment banks.


Just so you know, Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme also offered his investors a guaranteed return of 5%/pa. Why only 5% ? According to New York Post, he offered only 5% return so people won't get suspicious of the investment scheme he was running

This post has been edited by MilesAndMore: Jun 15 2009, 12:05 AM

I have a chat with some malay guy and encourage him to buy some. However, he is a very religious kind of people. He told me that ASB is not purely halal. Many of those money was invested in Genting. Etc Casino. So the income investment return is not halal money.....

I am not a malay, so I dont know so much about this. Anyone can give me some input.

'
The Sukuk is not an investment scheme, it is not equity based, its a bond. Meaning the government is taking out loans from the people who subscribe to the sukuk.

IMHO, the ASB/N/W/M all sounds suspiciously like a pyramid scheme of some sort to me. The fund sizes are so huge (usually bigger fund size means the returns will be limited), yet the returns are so high and consistent year after year. But then again, who really cares. Those funds are 100% backed by the government, so if you are paying your taxes, might as well get a piece of the action. The risk of it blowing up is very very very very low. So just sign up and enjoy the ride!

Obviosly we need a finance guru to explain about how ASNB works

No need la, people who are invested in AS* aren't really interested in how it works or where the money comes from. As long as the profits keep coming, nobody is complaining.

BNM is interested. So is foreign media. Unlike Ponzi Schemes, ASNB will need to present many supporting documents when they are due to credit dividend to their account holders. This includes the financial report of the companies they invested in. The quarterly as well as the year end consolidated results of the companies etc.

With Ponzi Schemes, it is much less complicated and always have a transparency issue. They will tell you they use your money to invest in many different companies or foreign countries but very often the companies they claim your money is invested in are the companies many have never heard of. Fake financial reports sometimes will be present. The financial market in Malaysia, unlike United States is still very heavily regulated. So your money is safe and ASNB is definitely not a Ponzi Scheme. In fact it works very differently compared to a typical Ponzi Scheme.


This is usually what you'll be told in university but not quite true. Many US traders will tell you otherwise

This post has been edited by MilesAndMore: Jun 18 2009, 07:26 AM

So how my question on HALAL investment?

base on majlis mufti kebangsaan fatwa , it is harus. reason: maslahah umum or public interest or it is need for the sake of public. it is a weak reason.
but if you expert in finance, u know it is not halal, u can consult website by ustaz zaharudin who graduate from financial.
http://www.zaharuddin.net/content/view/224/100/

u can see his updates on fatwa at
http://www.zaharuddin.net/content/view/663/100/

This post has been edited by mmusang: Jun 20 2009, 09:14 PM

Finally someone clarified this. Thanks for the link.....

As on today, ASM for indian still got...cheers

So does that mean I can go to Pos Office/ CIMB & Subscribe? What do I need to bring & how do they accept payment (cheque etc)? Never subscribed to ASNB stuff before, but have some liquid funds & want to lock it in....

You can open an ASM account either at Pos Office, ASNB Office, Maybank, CIMB Bank or RHB Bank. Bring along your IC. If i'm not mistaken, they only accept cash.

Thanx for the info, went earlier & got my ASM... this + Sukuk & structured investment covers me for moderately secure / investments, time to look for something speculative....

Today try to invest ASM but it is finished. I'm bumi, there said also finished. Not sure the RHB is lying or not.

Try to go post office...normally they will let you know...if not buy ASB better...why buy ASM??

An indirect sign that he has max up his ASB