KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Perodua and Petronas were the most trusted corporations in Malaysia last year, beating others such as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Maybank, according to an Ipsos survey.

In the "Ipsos Trust Track: The Most Trusted Corporations and Institutions in Malaysia” report released today, Perodua and Petronas both received a trust index of 74.

The remaining companies in the list’s top five were EPF, which received a trust index of 72, followed by Maybank and Pos Malaysia, scoring 69 and 68 respectively.

Ipsos also found that in aggregate, Malaysians’ trust in local corporations had increased from a score of 46 in 2019, to 50 in 2020.

"General public and consumers are clearly expecting corporations and institutions to contribute to the pandemic recovery. Despite the difficult year 2020 has been, it has not impacted trust in corporations and institutions negatively at the aggregate level. Trust has increased from 2019 to 2020,” said the report.

Trust in government agencies — such as EPF — and government-linked corporations — such as Petronas — increased from 47 and 50 in 2019, to 57 and 60 in 2020.

Meanwhile, trust in telecommunications corporations suffered the most, dropping from 55 to 48.

Trust in financial and media corporations also fell slightly, from 45 and 44 respectively, to 43 in both sectors.

Astro proved to be the most trusted media corporation with a trust index of 55, while Maxis prevailed in the telecommunications industry, scoring 57.

The most trusted fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) corporation was Colgate Palmolive, with a score of 75.

These were the results of Ipsos survey on the perception towards over 100 companies in Malaysia. The survey involved over 4000 face-to-face interviews conducted between June and November, with a nationally representative sample.

Ipsos is among the largest market research companies in the world, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people.