KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) today said its members may use savings in EPF Account 2 to apply for personal financing from banking institutions.

This can be done through an advance application for the Age 50 or Age 55 Conditional Withdrawal, EPF said in a statement posted to its official Facebook page.

"Requests can be made online through participating banking institutions,” it said.

However, this option is only available to Malaysian EPF members who have yet to reach the of 55.

Another condition is requests can be made only once, and once made, cannot be cancelled.

"Requests will be open for the period of one year (12 months) from an implementation date that will be announced in due course,” it added.

Applicants must have at least RM3,000 in savings in EPF Account 2 and conditional withdrawal cannot exceed RM50,000.

The withdrawn amount will be paid to the banking institution once the member has reached either 50 or 55 years of age, as decided by the member.

On March 11, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the plan to allow EPF contributors to use their savings as collateral for loans would not involve any withdrawals from their savings.

Anwar reiterated that the plan would only apply to those who are in bad financial straits.

On March 9, Anwar, who is also the finance minister, announced that the government is deliberating greenlighting the use of EPF savings as collateral for emergency loans, following repeated calls from the Opposition to allow further withdrawals.

Anwar also stressed that it was unfair to make Malaysians keep dipping into their retirement savings when these have already been drawn down repeatedly during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying the government would instead look for alternatives to help.

That same day, EPF revealed that two million members aged between 40 and 54 have less than RM10,000 in their savings in their accounts.