EPF sees challenging outlook for rest of 2019
KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) expects a challenging market for the rest of the year.
“Like others in the investing community, I have to acknowledge that the outlook continues to be challenging,” said EPF chief executive officer Tunku Alizakri Alias when asked if this year’s dividend would match last year’s 6.15 per cent payout.
In the second quarter ended June 30, the EPF announced a lower investment income of RM12.32 billion from RM12.39 billion a year ago.
It said the RM70 million income dip was due to the weaker equity market sentiment.
“At EPF, we strive to do our best to give satisfactory results to members,” said Alizakri after a panel discussion on “The EPF looks towards a digital future with i-Invest” held in conjunction with EPF’s i-Invest launch, here, yesterday.
He said EPF had targeted to pay a dividend of at least two per cent above the inflation rate.
Alizakri said since the beta version launch of the i-Invest digital investment platform a month ago, there had been encouraging response from its financiallysavvy members.
“So far, we have nearly 2,500 members transacting a total value of RM32 million on i-Invest.”
The i-Invest allows members to invest directly in unit trust funds offered under EPF’s scheme.
EPF members can transfer up to 30 per cent of the excess of their basic savings from Account 1 to be invested in qualified funds.
A total of 389 funds from equity, mixed assets, bonds, money market and property trusts are approved by EPF.
EPF members aged 55 and above can use i-Invest via Akaun 55 or Akaun Emas through the i-Akaun portal as a mode of withdrawal, subject to maintaining a minimum of RM1,000 in their account.
The EPF has enforced a maximum cap of 0.5 per cent on sales charge for the online investment facility, while offline and traditional transactions through agents carry a sales charge of three per cent.
Alizakri said i-Invest was just the beginning of many milestones in a series of innovations that reflected the EPF’s readiness to embrace a digitally-driven future.