KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) today declared a 6.10 per cent dividend for conventional savings and 5.65 per cent dividend for Shariah savings in 2021, with a payout of RM50.45 billion and RM6.27 billion respectively.

In a statement, EPF said that the total payout for the year 2021 is RM56.72 billion — becoming the new all-time high total payout.

Besides beating the previous all-time high total payout of RM48.13 billion in 2017, last year’s EPF dividend performance also surpassed the 5.2 per cent for conventional savings and 4.9 per cent for Shariah savings in the year 2020.    

EPF chairman Tan Sri Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir was quoted as saying, "Alhamdulillah, the EPF had managed to keep it steady for the year 2021 and remained resilient, due in part to our healthy and globally diversified portfolio”.

Alhamdulillah is an Arabic phrase meaning "praise be to God”.

"The RM101 billion pandemic-related withdrawals since the year 2020 had resulted in 48 per cent of EPF members having less than RM10,000 in their accounts. 

"We hope that this dividend and our continued performance will help us begin the process of rebuilding our members’ retirement savings, as economic recovery takes shape over the course of the year,” he added.

EPF said it had "rebalanced” its investment portfolio in 2021, by acquiring shares at "fundamentally strong and attractive prices” and "capitalising on its overseas investments” — a strategy that contributed 56 per cent of its overall returns for the year,

It added that EPF’s total gross investment income for 2021 was RM67.06 billion, an increase of 6 per cent compared to the RM63.45 in 2020.

A breakdown provided showed EPF’s investments by asset class for 2021, which comprised 45 per cent of "fixed income instruments”, 44 per cent of "equities”, 6 per cent of real estate, and 5 per cent of "money market instruments”.

The crediting of the dividends for both conventional savings and Shariah savings will be completed on Sunday, March 6, which members can check via EPF’s i-Akaun online service or by getting their account statements from EPF kiosks nationwide.