Those are some lofty targets that have been set given the present and near future economic climate/outlook. I guess not all GLCs/GLICs are goyang kaki type of corporations after all.

My normal insider informed that the rule was imposed having been advised by the authorities to prevent money laundering as part of the AMLAATF act thingy which is enforced by both BNM and SC. And with all the news of SPRM going around charging government officials and corruption, they're probably just erring on the side of caution.

Normal investors should not be too worried about the rule but for those who need washing machines for their ill-gotten gains, PNB is one less avenue that's available to them.

To be fair to PNB, they can only do so much. The nature of "on-the-spot" transactions makes them unique but at the same time also open to abuse by irresponsible parties. They're a unit trust product, supposedly for long term and not short term. Such transaction behavior would definitely put them closer to banks than UTMC's.

Having said that, they're doing their best to close the loop. Have you realized that the new management is a lot more transparent as compared to the previous ones? More transparency and adherence to laws always put confidence in people as compared to their "neighbor" (the organization next to the HQ in KL) who reports to no one, have no laws that binds them other then their own made-up acts and rather secretive of their dealings which ends them up lurching from one scandal to another.

My contact said that they've completed another round of testing. It was mentioned that the project is pending approval from the top-top management of PNB (Chairman & President) before it would be made available to the staff for a soft-launch and subsequent public launch.

I guess they're just waiting for the right time to launch it to the masses.


The push-back is still coming from the regulator ie: SC. They're probably more likely be granted an increase of fund size of an existing fund as compared to being allowed to launch an entirely new fund as the former would be smaller in terms of size as compared to the launch of a new fund which can be in billions.

My normal insider info states that the ASB2 fund is currently 65% taken up since its launch less than 2 years ago. They've set themselves an internal target of the fund being fully subscribed by 2018, 2 years ahead of schedule.

There are bumi's saving for their future, just not enough and not large in numbers enough. Yes of course if ASB2 was not bumi only but open to all then all 10 billion would've been snapped up in no time but one has to remember the original intention that PNB was setup.

Non-bumi Malaysians couldn't invest in PNB until 1996 when Tun launched ASW2020; a full 18 years after PNB was initially formed.

I think it's as much about attitude as it is capability. A few days ago AKPK released data of bankruptcy among the young professionals. Now if you've just started working, there's a possibility that one is still living with the parents and probably the down payment for the first car is by the parents too. So if you're still being fed at least twice a day and have a roof over your head and no utility bills to pay, how can one go bankrupt due to credit card?

Even in this very thread you have investors who are still students amassing investments which would put many to shame. They're well versed, know what they want, have clear goals and are disciplined to stick to it. Besides, PNB has made it so simple to save/invest with them, which other UTMC allows you to invest with RM10? Cigarettes cost more than to save/invest in PNB.

Of course, the above is my views alone. Some are genuinely unable to save while others if not most refuse to do so because chasing lifestyle, not interested, oblivious, don't care, want to get rich quick, etc2...


I've shared this before. They've pretty much completed the testing phase for the system. It's now pending approval from management and will be launched to staff first before it'll be made available to the public. And yes the system allows you to perform real-time transactions unlike the current internet banking offered by M2U, Clicks, etc2...

This post has been edited by hyelbaine: Dec 8 2016, 02:58 PM

Well from what I have been made to understand, there's some selection process probably dependent on how much you've invested with them. From a practical POV, they can't give each and every one of their investors a calendar each, the have more than 12 million unit holders mind you.

They probably rotate based on state but I would hazard a guess one must have at least a certain amount of money invested over a period of time to be eligible but as some have found out, one can always email/request/ask for one if you want to.

I do not believe that only HNW investors get it but its really available to all; some get it in the mail without asking and some have to ask.

One good thing to do is to make sure your address and contact details are up to date as that would certainly help.

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.

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 disagree

As I said, it's my personal opinion and I may be wrong. EPF never really breached the 6% previously until recently when finally had the size to gain from equity since the investment mandate for its funds have always been <50% of VOF exposure to equities and coupled with their change of asset allocation towards overseas investment.

The opposite applies to PNB's funds which are mainly equity based and limited to local securities only (with the exception of ASB2 of course) so when the local bourse is doing well, the returns are reflected as such.

Personally I think if the OPR drops any further or the currency continues to devalue or the KLCI does not at least consolidate if not move higher, the chances of the other FP's dipping below 6% is obviously there but isn't say 5.5% returns when OPR is 25 or 50 basis points from where it is now or the local shringgit hitting 4.80 or KLCI continues to struggle to stay above 1500 not bad given that there's no investment cost and relatively secure?

Obviously there'll be those who claim that other types of products can provide better returns and rightly so but not everyone has the time, knowledge, capability, capacity (in terms of monies) and opportunity to invest in products with higher returns.

AWO = Abdul Wahid Omar, PNB's new chairman.

I think one would have to understand that FPs are essentially still normal unit trust products so the laws are applicable as to normal UTs ie: all unit holder funds are in the name of the trustee and NOT in the name of PNB/ASNB unlike other institutions such as LTH. So with that there's no way for unit holder funds to be used for "other purposes".

What I meant by not using reserves to prop up returns is for eg: let's say ASB's real returns for 2016 was maybe 4% or 5% but AWO would not have blown all the reserves accumulated after all these years just to keep ASB above 7% because really, given the size of ASB one could easily blow the reserves in just one distribution. So yeah PNB might have used some of the reserves to keep the returns competitive but not to maintain a "historical" track record of say always above 7%.

PNB's style have always been to accumulate reserves during good times and used it wisely when time's aren't doing so good unlike their neighbors LTH who burnt through their meager reserves for "brownie points" till it required a warning from BNM (although of course the latter can't do much but "warn" as LTH is not under the purview of BNM or SC but have their own "act").

The dividends will be credited back to your EPF account and will be as such until you reach the required age set by EPF. People used to transfer a lot from EPF to ASNB FP when the spread/margin was more than 2% but no so nowadays. We'll see what EPF declares this year but they've already said not to expect high returns due to market conditions.