Maybank: Building the Future through Knowledge & Educational Development

Support for education remains a strong commitment for the Maybank Group. The Maybank Scholarship Awards Scheme continued to attract overwhelming interest from students in local institutions of higher learning vying for an opportunity to be a Maybank scholar and to join the Maybank family upon graduation. During the year, more than RM1.8 million in scholarship awards was disbursed to 205 scholars, 54 of whom were new recipients pursuing undergraduate studies at local universities. For the first time, Maybank Scholarships were offered to students from private universities to provide greater opportunities to high achievers in these institutions as well. Since the inception of the awards in 1972, Maybank has sponsored more than 1,000 scholars as well as provided them with employment opportunities.

In the Maybank Group Staff’s Children Academic Excellence Award, 390 recipients who obtained excellent results in the PMR, SPM and STPM public examinations received cash incentives totaling over RM285,000. The award programme, introduced in 1986, recognizes the scholastic efforts of children of Maybankers.

In addition, Yippie and Yippie-i account children savers who obtained excellent results were also rewarded. To promote savings for higher education, Maybank signed an agreement with the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) to participate in its National Education Savings Scheme (SSPN). This makes Maybank the first bank to offer its comprehensive channels, namely branches, ATMs, cash deposit terminals, KawanKu Phone Banking and Internet banking portal Maybank2u.com to enable savings to be made under this Scheme.

The Group also contributed RM4 million to set up the Maybank Chair of Entrepreneurship at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) to encourage the development of entrepreneurship among Malaysians. This is in addition to other Chairs in Accounting which were earlier established at Universiti Malaya and Universiti Putra Malaysia. Maybank continued to demonstrate its commitment to financial education of the Malay community in Singapore with its seventh consecutive year of supporting the Berita Harian Financial Planning Conference, while BII conducted a Journalist Writing and Photography Contest as part of its campaign to educate the public on banking knowledge.

BII also has a strong programme in educational initiatives which saw the bank contributing Rp1.19 billion for the reconstruction of classrooms in primary schools in Yogyakarta destroyed by the earthquake. It also constructed fully furnished BII classrooms for a special school for underprivileged families in the Lengkong Wetan area in Tangerang in collaboration with Bina Anak Indonesia. For higher education, BII offered scholarships to 50 Gajah Mada University students through Yayasan Karya Salemba Empat (KSE), a non-profit social organisation engaged in education with a focus on promoting education and providing scholarships for the betterment of human resources.

Additionally, BII continued its support of Bank Indonesia’s Ayo ke Bank initiative by taking an active part in providing educational talks on banking products and financial management to students during its school programmes. The financial education programmes were also promoted in seven BII-supported schools.

The Group embarked on two major financial educational programmes with TV3 as part of its efforts to educate the public on financial planning and smart investing. The Stock Watch programme is a live weekly series show in English aimed at creating a savvier investing public. The programme features weekly updates on financial news, trends and earnings as well as projections and tips for the week ahead. It also provides market commentaries and business updates from local, regional and international perspectives. The programme made its debut in June 2008 and will continue until the end of December 2009.

The other programme Bijak Wang is a personal financing programme aimed at increasing financial literacy and management of one’s personal finances and savings. The live talk show in Bahasa Malaysia features real-life case studies, financial counseling and viewer call-in.

Maybank also contributed RM150,000 to its two adopted schools in Penang under the PINTAR Programme. Support for educational programmes was also extended to Perdana Leadership Foundation, the Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI) Capital Markets and Banking Summits, Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri Malaysia Debate Series for students, Malaysia-Japan Economic Association (MAJECA) forums and Institute Kefahaman Islam Malaysia Quality Management programmes.

The Group continued to support the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority’s annual Trade & Investment Seminar in Singapore aimed at encouraging investors from Singapore into Malaysia besides enhancing bilateral trade ties between the two countries.

During the year, the Group together with the Council for Sustainable Development Malaysia held three seminars for small and medium enterprises (SME). The seminars held in Penang and Johor Bahru focused on adopting good CSR practices for business sustainability in the global supply chain.