Maybank under-reported losses: DAP

(Malaysian Mirror) – DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has accused the country’s No. 1 lender Maybank of under-reporting its losses by a whopping RM780 million.

Maybank is government-controlled and one of the nation's largest firms with a sprawling network of branches throughout the country.

The Employee Provident Fund, which manages the retirement savings of most Malaysian workers, and Umno-linked agencies such as Permodalan Nasional Bhd, which oversee the investments of millions of mostly Malay unit-holders, own chunks of its shareholdings.

Public has a right to know

According to Lim, who is also Penang Chief Minister and Bagan MP, the 'reporting' discrepancy was due to actual losses incurred on its foreign investments in devalued overseas banks.

He said Maybank had actually recorded a loss of RM2.75 billion on its investments in Indonesian bank BII and Pakistan's MCB Bank instead of the RM1.97 billion it recently reported in its fourth quarter results.

This was because the bank paid RM7.9 billion for BII and RM2.87 billion for MCB but these banks are now only valued at RM5.77 billion and RM2.25 billion respectively. The difference or impairment loss between the original and current valuations of both came up to RM2.75 billion.

"This RM780 million difference between RM1.97 billion and RM2.75 billion in losses may not be big by banking standards but huge for public interest," Guan Eng said in a statement.

"As Maybank is government-owned, the public has every right to demand full public accountability and action against those responsible for such reckless management decisions."