KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Rakyat Group has announced a higher dividend of 15 per cent for its account holders for the financial year (FY) ended Dec 31, 2021 compared with 13 per cent in FY 2020.

       This will involve a payout of RM429.50 million to 827,066 members and the dividend will be credited from April 25, 2022.

       Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar said despite the challenging environment triggered by COVID-19, Bank Rakyat was still able to maintain the double-digit dividend rate.

       "This achievement resulted from Bank Rakyat's commitment to realise the mandate entrusted to strengthen the economic well-being of its members and customers," he told a press conference to announce Bank Rakyat's financial performance for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021, here today.

       Noh said Bank Rakyat was always concerned about the needs of its members, of which 30 per cent were made up of individual recipients from the bottom 40 per cent of the household income (B40) group, while 20 per cent were cooperative recipients from the B40 group.

       For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021, Bank Rakyat recorded a profit before tax and zakat of RM1.63 billion and a net profit of RM1.86 billion.

       The strong performance was achieved through fundamental strength and focus on core activities despite the economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19, while the net profit was contributed by lower deferred tax liabilities during the year under review.

       Meanwhile, Bank Rakyat chairman Datuk Abd Rani Lebai Jaafar said the cooperative bank is on track, following an encouraging 2021 financial performance, driven by the group's financing and investment activities, as well as lower funding costs attributable to the low overnight policy rate.

       "In addition, the lower impairment provision in the current year, in line with industry trends has also improved the group’s performance.

       "This achievement was also driven by the group's net operating income, which increased 3.2 per cent to RM3.52 billion from RM3.41 billion previously, helped by lower funding costs as a result of effective asset liability management, and Current Accounts-i and Savings Accounts-i (CASA) which is higher at RM9.23 billion from RM8.28 billion previously," he added.

       Abd Rani said the group also managed to maintain a healthy cost-to-income ratio below 40 per cent, which was lower than the industry average arising from effective cost management activities.

       Going forward, he said Bank Rakyat would continue to focus on new growth areas, especially to harness the potential that could be explored in business and operations through digital transformation to create long-term value for shareholders.

       He said currently, Bank Rakyat's strategic plan 2025 (BR25) was in the implementation phase for which in 2021, all the 46 programmes planned had been realised according to plan.

       "These achievements include the establishment of 10 small and medium enterprise business and cooperative centres (SMECs) which are currently operating throughout the country, including in Sabah and Sarawak.

       "Besides, Bank Rakyat has also launched the iRakyat mobile banking application which is one of the key achievements of the Digitalisation action plan through BR25," he said.

       As at Dec 31, 2021, Bank Rakyat has a total market capitalisation of RM21 billion, while the group's total assets amount to RM115.06 billion. - Bernama