Maybank accused of under-reporting loss

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said Maybank's $225 million reporting discrepancy came from its devalued overseas investments.

Lim said Maybank had actually recorded a loss of US$792.5 million on its investments in Indonesian bank BII and Pakistan's MCB Bank instead of the US$567.72 million it recently reported in its fourth quarter results, as reported in Malaysia Today.

This was because the bank paid US$2.28 billion for BII and US$827.09 million for MCB but these banks are now only valued at US$1.66 billion and US$648.42 million respectively. The difference or impairment loss between the original and current valuations of both came up to US$792.51 million.

"This RM780 million (US$224.78 million) difference between RM1.97 billion (US$567.72 million) and RM2.75 billion (US$792.51 million) 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."