The Bank manages its finances with the objective of ensuring that it has the resources to discharge its mandates to promote monetary and financial stability conducive to the sustainable growth of the Malaysian economy. In keeping with these mandates, we are committed to being disciplined, prudent and responsible in managing our resources.

Although we are a statutory body, we do not rely on public funds from the Government to support our day- to-day operations. Instead, our operations are funded by income generated from our investments of the country’s international reserves. In 2019, we generated total income of RM11,129 million (2018: RM9,334 million), net of costs associated with managing the international reserves portfolio and conducting monetary operations.

Against this, we incur expenses to manage and administer our day-to-day operations (“recurring expenditure”) and also expenses to finance developmental and long term projects in line with our principal objects and functions (“development expenditure”). This includes expenditures incurred for our currency operations and to maintain the country’s payment infrastructure. In 2019, these expenditures amounted to RM2,161 million (2018: RM1,772 million).

In 2019, we generated RM8,926 million in net profit after tax (2018: RM7,521 million). Of this, RM5,400 million (2018: RM5,000 million) was transferred to our risk reserve. The risk reserve acts as a crucial financial buffer against unexpected losses arising from unfavourable market conditions that are not within our control. This includes movements of interest rates in the United States and other advanced economies, fluctuations in foreign exchange and global equity markets. The Bank is exposed to foreign exchange volatility in particular due to investment of the international reserves which are in foreign currency, while our liabilities are in ringgit.

The remaining RM3,500 million (2018: RM2,500 million) in net profit will be paid as dividend to the Government.

Our assets, as at 31 December 2019, totalled RM451,600 million (2018: RM447,637 million), with the RM424,090 million (2018: RM419,572 million) international reserves portfolio constituting the bulk (94%) of our assets.

Our liabilities arise mainly from deposits by financial institutions (RM163,714 million) and currency in circulation (RM114,097 million).