Malayan Banking Bhd’s latest disclosure points to more than just deal volume, it provides early evidence that the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) is beginning to attract meaningful capital flows , positioning the bank at the forefront of a multi-year regional growth theme. Early Signs of Capital Formation in JS-SEZ Malayan Banking Bhd has facilitated RM20 billion (US$4.9 billion) in financing and investments tied to the JS-SEZ, spanning corporate, mid-market and consumer segments. More notably, the bank has supported the establishment of nine family offices in Johor , signalling: Rising wealth inflows into the corridor Growing demand for cross-border structuring and asset allocation Early-stage development of a regional wealth management hub This suggests the SEZ is moving beyond policy ambition into execution phase , where capital deployment is already taking shape. From Policy Framework to Investable Theme The JS-SEZ...
Quoted directly from today's The Star Business..... links over here IN general, most people have the impression that the money placed in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) always generates lower returns compared with the returns from their own investments. In this article, we will look into the returns from EPF versus returns from the KL Composite Index (KLCI). We assume that investors are able to generate their own returns equivalent to the returns from the KLCI. Based on our 23 years of data compilation, it is generally true that the average returns generated from EPF are lower than KLCI returns. From 1986 to 2008, the average return of EPF was 6.7%, 2.3 percentage points lower than the average return of 9% from the KLCI ( see table ). However, most people do not understand the risks they need to undertake when they invest by themselves. The standard deviation of EPF is only 1.5%, 22.2 percentage points lower than the standard deviation of 23.7% from the KLCI. We use stand...