KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia has set aside RM4 billion as dividend payment to the government after posting more than RM10 billion net profit in 2020.
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The central bank, which generates income from investments of the country’s international reserves, saw net profit rose to RM10.23 billion from RM8.93 billion in 2019.
Of the RM10.23 billion, RM6.23 billion would be transferred into its general reserve fund, Bank Negara said in its Annual Report 2020 released today.
Bank Negara generated total income of RM13.49 billion, up from RM11.13 billion in 2019, net of costs associated with managing the international reserves portfolio and conductingg monetary operations.
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“Against this, we incur expenses to manage and administer our day-to-day operations and also expenses to finance developmental and lomg-term projects in line with our principal objects and functions.”
This included expenditure incurred for the central bank’s currency operations and to maintain Malaysia’s payment infrastructure last year, it said, adding that these expenditures amounted to RM3.22 billion last year.
Bank Negara’s assets stood at RM488.04 billion as at December 31 last year, up from RM458.97 billion in 2019, with the RM432.37 billion of international reserves portfolio constituting the bulk (89 per cent) of the assets.
Its liabilities arise mainly from deposits by financial institutions (RM146.03 billion) and currency in circulation (RM130.42 billion). – NST