KUALA LUMPUR: Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives, Datuk Ewon Benedick, today announced a 17% dividend for Bank Rakyat’s 2024 financial year, with the total payout amounting to RM486.32 million.
According to YB Datuk Ewon Benedick, the payment of dividends to members will commence on 16 April 2025 and will benefit a total of 773,859 members.
The commendable financial performance has enabled Bank Rakyat to optimise capital and maintain a high dividend payout as a reward to Bank Rakyat’s members and stakeholders for their continuous support.
Meanwhile, he said the group continues to support its yearly mandated role in the cooperative ecosystem by contributing 2% of its profit before taxation and zakat, amounting to RM36.43 million, to the Cooperative Education Trust Fund and 1% or RM18.22 million to the Cooperative Development Provident Fund. Total contribution to these cooperative funds for the year 2024 amounted to RM54.65 million compared to RM53.21 million in the preceding year.
Bank Rakyat Group (the Group) announced another year of strong and commendable performance for the financial year ending 2024. The Group recorded a higher profit before tax and zakat (PBTZ) of RM1.82 billion as compared to RM1.76 billion in the preceding year, an increase of 3.15% or RM55.43 million.
The higher PBTZ was achieved through the group’s strong fundamentals, focusing on core activities and supported by the improved domestic economic condition to remain vigilant despite uncertain global economic outlook and challenging banking environment.
With the margin stabilisation still underway, the Group’s unwavering commitment to remain agile and resilient has borne positive outcomes for financial year 2024. The commendable performance was underpinned by the Group’s continuous attractive offering in the consumer financing segment while focusing on non-fund-based income, embracing digitalisation by tapping into the mass affluent market, and improving the overall asset quality.
The Group’s core income increased by 0.36% to RM6.69 billion, attributed to sturdy growth in the gross financing balance of 2.94%. In line with the five-year strategic plan aspiration (BR25), the Group continued to benefit from the diversification of portfolios in secured financing segments such as Home Financing-i, Vehicle Financing-i and Pawn Broking-i.
In addition, the Group’s deposit-led strategy and targeted efforts in low-cost deposit acquisition resulted in the increase of Current Accounts-i, Savings Accounts-i and Investment Accounts-i (CASAIA) by 5.50% to RM10.75 billion.
The Group’s robust performance was further boosted by higher other operating income by 23.69%, or RM137.39 to RM717.39 million.
Additionally, the Group continued to uphold a prudent risk management culture and a stringent credit underwriting process leading to lower allowances for impairment and an improved gross impaired financing ratio from 2.02% to 1.93%. The Group demonstrated discipline and efficiency in cost management, which was reflected in its healthy cost-to-income ratio of 46.89%, lower than the industry average.
Meanwhile, the Group’s capital position remained robust, with the Risk-Weighted Capital Ratio and Core Capital Ratio standing strong at 26.63% and 24.91%, respectively, well above the minimum regulatory requirements.
The Group continued to be competitive and profitable during the year and remained one of the largest full-fledged Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia.
