Sorry ladies and gents, was away on an extremely long break and just caught up with everything (lots of posts to read). Anyways, here's my views based on the info that I have.
Are PNB/ASNB worried? No. The bumi's are always famous for failing to understand the concept of compounding interest and as such they'll be expecting the normal withdrawal in the first month of 2017 just like all the previous years. People cancelling their ASB loans? I'm of the opinion is better to weed out those who shouldn't be eligible in the first place and have the quality borrowers.Â
Should investors be worried? Yes and no. Yes because ASB broke the 7% floor but that's more to do with AWO than anything else. Market participants and my insider contacts says that AWO is not a fan of using/dipping into reserves to prop-up returns unlike their neighbors Tabung Haji. What they make they'll pay out. Internally I believe the benchmark is set for 6% across all funds, I believe I read it in one of the analyst reports.
No because PNB will not allow its bread and butter FPs to drop below 6% (IMHO). EPF and LTH has only just recently breached the 6% and above returns for their funds as previously it was the domain of PNB's funds. The only mistake PNB did is not managing expectations for ASB returns. EPF played it smart by saying much earlier in mid-2016 that savers SHOULD NOT expect returns of 6% and more due to market conditions.
I know all the "press release" or "damage control" stuff flowing out of PNB/ASNB is cliche' but it's the truth. Minimal risk with returns above and beyond anything comparable. The spread between most FDs to FPs is still 2% at the very least while the spread between ASB returns and BLR/BFR is still almost 2% too so "apa lagi malaysians mahu?" to paraphrase a previous headline.
I mean come on guys, KLCI did go -ve in returns for the past 3 years and that's a fact. I'm in the camp that believes our "real" inflation rate is 4 to 5% rather than the quoted 1.8% CPI so the returns are still "competitive" (as per PNB's statements) as compared to the risk associated with FPs.
Again, the above are my views so you're most than welcome to agree to disagreeÂ

my sentiments exactly, its a decent product.
The ones withdrawing are most probably those than need funds for the new year, extremely bearish on PNB
or the extremely savvy investors that can do above 7% yoy on their own, I wouldn't be here if I could consistently tho