KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia will pay RM5 billion dividend to the government after posting a higher net profit of RM12.8 billion last year from RM10.23 billion net profit in 2020.
The RM5 billion is 25 per cent more than the RM4 billion dividend the central bank paid out for 2020.
The balance of RM7.8 billion from the net profit will be transferred into Bank Negara's General Reserve Fund (2020: RM6.23 billion).
Bank Negara, which generates revenue from its investments of the country's international reserves, saw its total income rising to RM14.73 billion from RM13.49 billion in 2020.
The RM14.73 billion was net of costs associated with managing the international reserves portfolio and conducting monetary operations, the central bank said in its Annnual Report 2021 released today.
Against this, Bank Negara said it had incurred expenses to manage and administer its operations and expenses to finance developmental and long-term projects in line with its principal objects and functions.
This included expenditures incurred for the central bank's currency operations and to maintain the country's payment infrastructure. These expenditures amounted to RM1.89 billion last year, much lower than the RM3.22 billion recorded in 2020.
Bank Negara noted that while it was a statutory body, it did not rely on public funds from the government to support its day-to-day operations.
"Instead, our operations are funded by income generated from our investments of the country's international reserves."
The central bank said its assets as at Dec 31 2021, totalled RM551.61 billion (2020: RM488.04 billion) with RM486.85 billion (2020: RM432.37 billion) of international reserves portfolio constituting the bulk (88 per cent) of the assets.
Its liabilities arise mainly from deposits by financial institutions (RM159.81 billion) and currency in circulation (RM150.06 billion).