The Employees Provident Fund Board (KWSP) is expected to announce its latest payout in the third week of February, and is expected to be higher than last year’s payout, and possibly exceed 6%. The dividend payout ratio for the EPF Board’s conventional account last year was 5.20%, while the payout ratio for the Islamic account was 4.90%.
According to the investment performance report for the first 9 months of last year just released by the Employees Provident Fund Board, investment income for the period ending September 30, 2021 increased by 7.7% to RM48.02 billion. This investment income is equivalent to last year’s total dividend payout, so this year’s EPF Board dividend payout is expected to exceed last year’s.
The domestic and international economies recovered gradually in the second half of last year, and with the rising tide of technology stocks and the abundance of lending capital, the EPF Board’s overseas investments performed very well last year.
Although the three withdrawal schemes introduced by the government (i-Lestari, i-Sinar and i-Citra) have allowed members to withdraw more than RM101 billion from their accounts, this has not seriously affected the investment performance of the EPF Board. This is something very reassuring.
Some experts predict that the EPF Board will not rule out the possibility of introducing a different dividend payout from previous years to boost and assist members with low deposits. However, there are also experts who disagree with this statement because it would be a disguised way to encourage members to withdraw money from the EPF.
