Based on the article,

1. Bank Rakyat is not listed
2. There is no market price for its share
3. Hence the par value (usually RM1) is used as the base to calculate the dividend rate
4. Applies to all sdn bhd companies when they declare dividend
Eg. When RM0.20 is declared as dividend, the dividend rate is 0.20 / 1.00 = 20% of par value

5. As compared to listed banks, when dividend is declared, investors use market price as the base to calculate dividend yield. Eg. Maybank declare RM0.50 dividend, the dividend yield is 0.50 / 10.00 (market price) = 5% of market price (ie dividend yield)
6. Should Maybank is not a listed company, then the dividend rate would be 52% (2016 total dividend / par value RM1)

So, the 16% is actually meaningless if you are not the shareholder. Because it is based on par value, which the intrinsic share price would have been much higher. To the original shareholders who actually paid only RM1.00 to buy its share, then yes, their return is 16%

To see whether Bank Rakyat is a better money making machine than other banks, you should compare using Profitability Ratios. Like ROA, net interest margin, loan-to-asset ratio.

IMO, the “16% dividend” looks juicy, but you have to dig deeper and compare against other banks using common ratios to know whether BR is generating profit above or below industry standard