Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Properties Withdrawal News
More EPF Members Purchase Homes

A total of 63,200 Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members withdrew a combined RM776 million from their savings to purchase homes or reduce their mortgages during the second quarter of this year, indicating a stronger demand for residential properties.

Unaudited second quarter statistics released by the EPF showed that the number and value of withdrawals for housing increased by 23.4 per cent and 18.2 per cent respectively compared to the previous quarter this year which saw 51,200 withdrawals with a value of RM656 million.

"The growing domestic economy has boosted members' demand for housing. The increase in the number and value of withdrawals indicates confidence in the residential property market," said Datuk Azlan Zainol, the Chief Executive Officer of the EPF.

For the period April to June 2004, a total of 206,700 withdrawals were made, valued at RM3.6 billion. The breakdown is as follows:

Schemes

No of Withdrawals

Amount
Age 50
22,700
RM410 million


Age 55
29,500
RM1.3 billion
Housing
63,200

RM776 million
Investment
48,400

RM525 million
Education
5,800

RM34 million
Pensionable Employees
28,000

RM338 million
Others
9,000

RM220 million

In the previous quarter there were a total of 187,600 withdrawals with a combined value of RM3.6 billion.

There was an increase in coverage during the quarter under review with the number of employees and employers registered with the EPF growing to 10.6 million and 363,300 respectively.

As at end June 2004, the total contribution grew to over RM223 billion, an increase of 1.02 per cent compared to the previous quarter of RM221 billion.

The EPF funds were invested in various instruments such as Malaysian Government Securities (MGS), Loans and Bonds, Equity, Money Market Instruments and Property. The breakdown, with the value and percentage in brackets, is as follows: MGS (RM90.2 billion, 39.7%), Loans and Bonds (RM64.8 billion, 28.5%), Equity (RM49 billion, 21.6%), Money Market Instruments (RM21.7 billion, 9.6%) and Property (RM1.4 billion, 0.6%).

"The EPF is growing rapidly in terms of membership and fund size but it is confident that its transformation initiatives has put the Fund in a solid position to cope with those challenges and continue delivering quality customer service," added Datuk Azlan.

Despite the increase, the EPF maintained its service efficiency with regard to the processing time for withdrawal applications. The average processing time of below 14 days for age 50, 55 and housing withdrawals remains above 99 per cent. All state offices performed above the set performance indicator of 80 per cent for non-retirement withdrawals.

Datuk Azlan continued: "The fact that the EPF continues to progressively upgrade its service standard is a reflection of the success of the Fund's internal service improvement initiatives which have been implemented since last year."

The EPF has rolled out various enterprise-wide projects and programmes to transform the organisation to become customer focused. Among the key initiatives are the Service Excellence Project (SERVE), Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Master Plan and Balanced Scorecard performance measurement tool.

"The EPF is committed to provide quality customer service. Making the EPF a customer focused organisation is imperative in its journey to becoming one of the leading social security organisations in the world and the top government agency in Malaysia," concluded Datuk Azlan.


About the Employees Provident Fund (EPF)

The EPF is Malaysia's national provident fund that aims to provide financial security for its members' retirement purposes. The fund is committed to preserving and growing the savings of its members in a prudent manner in accordance with best practices in investments and corporate conduct. Its services are also being improved with focus on people skills, processes and procedures.

The EPF will continue to play a catalytic role in the nation's development, consistent with its position as the largest social security organisation in Malaysia.