P2P Financing in Malaysia

In Malaysia, the Securities Commission (SC) has appointed six parties to run peer-to-peer (P2P) financing platforms: B2B FinPAL, Ethis Kapital, FundedByMe Malaysia, ManagePay Services, Modalku Ventures and Peoplender. Malaysia is also the first country in ASEAN to regulate this segment of financial technology (fintech).

How P2P Financing Works

There are three parties in the whole process. The investors, the issuers and the P2P financing operator. Businesses (or the issuers) who would like to raise fund will apply funding via the P2P financing platform. The P2P financing operator will evaluate the issuer’s suitability, among others, by assessing its capacity to repay through credit history checks and analysis of any alternative data. These factors allow the P2P financing operator to assess and assign a risk score to the investment note issued by such issuer. Such issuance will then be hosted on the P2P financing platform. The P2p financing operator will also decide the interest rate base on the risk.

The investors who register with the platform will have access to the companies’ information. The investors have to evaluate the risks of the loan based on the interest rate provided by comparing it against the market rate. Investors are also provided with the financial statements of the issuers, allowing them to make an informed decision. Depending on the operator’s policies, investor can start invest in P2P financing with amount as low as RM50.

Just like a person loan, the issuers will make repayment to the P2P financing operator monthly, with interest. Investors, on the other hand, will receive repayment from the P2P financing operator monthly, with interest less the platform fee.

How much I can earn?

The platform aims to provide investors with a simple return of 12% and 14% or an effective return of 22% and 24.91% respectively over a year. Some operator may give lower or higher interest rate. Although the return seems quite high if compared with fixed deposit or high dividend yield stock, there are risks in the investment. The loan may default and you get nothing. However, by statistic from other countries, the default rate is quite small. Singapore’s has default rate of about 2%.

Start now

So far, I only see two companies have started to operate. I may write a review for each of them later. The entry cost is very low so you can start trying with small amount. To reduce your risk, I will suggest you to diversify your investment among different P2P financing platforms and among different notes (or loans).

Start now and receive free credit from my referral links:

• Funding Societies – RM50 Free
• Fundaztic P2P – RM50 Free

How Shopback.my works? The participating merchants reward Shopback with a commission for referring you to shop on their site. Shopback then shares a portion of commission with you (in other words – Shopback cashback to you)

To get cashback from the participating merchants, you will need to register an account at Shopback (my referal link). Log in into you account. Select a merchant that you want to make transaction. Click on the referral link provided and you are set to go and purchase the things you want as usual.

Other than cashback, sometime Shopback will give you discount code as well and so you can save even more!

Good news to all Maybank 2 Cards user, the 5% weekend cash back from Maybank 2 Cards is back. It is now no longer limit to dining transactions only.

From Maybank announcement:

Effective 15th March 2017, all Maybank 2 American Express® Gold and Platinum Cardmembers will be
entitled to these new benefits:

• 5% Weekend Cash Back capped at RM50 per Cardmember per calendar month
• 5X TreatsPoints for Petrol transactions below RM500

I have canceled my king of cashback card – Hong Leong WISE VISA because  you will need to spend at least RM1000 on the relevant transactions and then you only entitled for cash back on those transactions.

Since I don’t spend that much, Maybank 2 Cards is now my preferred cards again.

Quora.com

Gone are the days when you type a question on Yahoo!, hoping that someone out there on the internet will take your question seriously and answer it with something even remotely accurate. Today, we have Quora that provides a question and answer platform run by the Quora community.

More than six years ago, venture capitalists were not too keen about this idea. Who would actually use a social site just to ask a question and get answers when there’s already Google and Wikipedia? It was in 2011 when American blogger and technical evangelist Robert Scoble blogged about Quora being the next big blogging innovation of the decade, with tech giants TechCrunch, PC Magazine, TNW, and FastCompany following suit. Just a few years since it began, this Palo Alto-based startup is valued at $900 million already.

Twitter.com

This social networking site launched in July of 2006, gaining popularity all over the world, with over 300 million active users and 1.6 billion search queries performed each day. Twitter was originally pitched as an SMS service for small group communication. Initially, it wasn’t clear what Twitter was supposed to be. People were confused whether it was a microblogging site, a social networking site, or an information network. Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr thought so, too, when they rejected Twitter because it had no traction at the time. Today, Twitter is valued at just a little over $10 billion.

Dropbox.com

It was ridiculous to create a file sharing and syncing service when there were already so many of them existing in 2007. But Dropbox founder Drew Houston thought they lacked a lot when it came to storing larger files. They also often suffered from internet latency. Dropbox then got funding from huge companies, like Index Ventures, Greylock, Goldman Sachs, and Sequioa. Steve Jobs met with Drew Houston in December 2009 and offered $800 million to buy the company, saying that Dropbox was a feature and not a product. Today, Dropbox’s valuation is somewhere between $5 and $10 billion.

Instagram.com

Who would’ve thought that two guys’ desire to take mobile photography to the next level would turn them into billionaires? Their initial idea was a lot like Foursquare, the check-in app that was very hot in 2010. They came up with the app called Burbn but noticed that most people were posting photos of their lattes, their dogs, or their lunch sandwiches. They scrapped the original idea and gravitated towards photo sharing, directing their efforts to providing social users what Hipstamatic when Facebook couldn’t. They launched Instagram in October of 2010, the name a portmanteau of “instant camera” and “telegram”, hitting a million users in just 3 months. In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. Analysts say that Instagram is now worth $37 billion.

This article is brought to you by iMoney Philippines, the primary financial comparison website in the Philippines that allows users easy access to data on various financial products available in the market. Our main goal is to provide updated, valuable info that will assist users in choosing the right product with the option of applying hassle-free, at no cost, through our online portal. We also regularly publish insightful articles that deals with money saving tips, general personal finance, and investment advice readily available in our Learning Center.

Employee Provident Fund (EPF) board has announced 2 days ago that the Minister of Finance has approved the proposed dividend rate for EPF members. The dividend rate for 2015 is 6.4% or total dividend payout of RM38,243 billion.

I think it is a good news for everyone. 6.4% is consider high though it is not the highest payout (last year, 2014, was about 6.75%).

[Read more at EPF Website]

This is what I found – Hong Leong WISE Card – the king of cash back credit card – which give you cash back of 10% all year around and up to RM100 each month!.

The condition to get the cashback from this credit card is simple – just make a minimum of any 10 retail transactions (in any category) monthly (with a minimum of RM50 per transaction), you’ll get to enjoy the 10% cash back on your spending in the selected categories of your choice.

The cashback is only applicable to two selected categories of your choice + a bonus mobile categories. If this is still not enough for you, you can ask your spouse or partner to register another card to cover another two categories.

There are 10 categories – Mobile (bonus), Pharmacies, Groceries, Petrol, Dining, Departmental, Book Stores, Utilities, Entertainment and Travel.

I applied this card and chose Petrol and Groceries. My monthly saving now is about RM80 – RM100 monthly. Not bad huh?

Do check out Lowyat.net to find out which retail is under which category.

I checked with the bank personnel near my office but they can’t find out the reason the transfers being rejected and my accounts are in good status. After 10 minutes of investigation, another bank personnel said that may be is due to the minimum amount requirement in that account. I was trying to make payment from my M2U Saver account.

So I gave it a try. I’m able to transfer out money only if my account balance is more than or equals to RM250 after the transfer.

If you are getting the same error like me and are trying to transfer out money from M2U Saver account, do check if the transfer will result your balance to less than the minimum balance amount requirement.

[Update 25th, September 2015]

If you are paying for your Maybank credit cards and you are paying the statement amount which is more than the outstanding amount, you will get the same error too. I’m not sure why Maybank don’t want you to pay more than the outstanding amount.

Statement amount is more than outstanding amount, but how can this happen? The statement balance is the amount for the billing period so it is a fix amount. While outstanding amount is the money you owe to bank and when you pay RM1, the amount reduced by RM1.

For my case, it was due to some of my credit card transactions have been refunded and credited back to my credit card account after the billing date. So when I was trying to pay the statement amount, it was rejected with the 0076 code.

[Update 13th, April 2016]

If you are withdrawing gold from your Maybank Gold Investment Account (MGIA) account and you are withdrawing all available gold from that account, you will get the same 0076 error.

You will need to maintain at least 1 gram of gold in you MGIA.

0076 seems to be a general code from Maybank2u system that indicates your account has insufficient amount or after the transfer will cause the account not to meet the minimum requirement. So always check for minimum requirement of that account when you get this error.

Maybank2u Savers is an online savings account that provides the convenience of opening, accessing and closing your account without visiting a branch.

You can also enjoy higher interest rate  than the normal saving account with this Maybank2u Savers account. The interest rate is lower than a fixed deposit’s but it gives you the flexibility of withdrawing any amount and any time from the account without giving up the accumulated interest.  Interest is calculated on a daily basis and credited on a monthly basis.

If you are a Maybank2u user, Maybank2u Savers is a very convenience place to park your extra money temporary and earn some peanuts from it. For example, you want to pay your credit card bill of amount RM5,000 and the payment due date is 10 days away, you can put the RM5,000 into your Maybank2u Savers account for 10 days. You will earn about RM3.08 of interest for that month and you can buy teh tarik for yourself and your friend.

Pros

1. You can apply online without needing to submit any document. You just need to have a Maybank2u account.
2. High interest rate than normal account.
3. Can withdraw money any time.
4. No passbook and can be linked to your current saving accounts so that you can withdraw money via ATM from this account.

Cons

• High initial deposit – RM250.
• High minimum amount to maintain – RM250. Important!
• High minimum amount to enjoy interest – RM250.
• High service charge if you close the account within 3 months from the account activation date.

What are the interest rates

• 2.25% per annum for saving of RM2,000 to RM50,000.
• 2.45% per annum for saving of RM50,000 and above.

How to apply

1. Log-in to Maybank2u account at Maybank2u.com.my.
2. Click Apply Online at the home page.
3. Select M2U Savers.
4. Fill in the details and click continue (You will need to transfer RM250 from your existing account).

You may have heard one of the most popular cashback credit card in the market – The Maybank 2 Cards – which give you cashback if you spending money with the Maybank2 American Express card (one of the 2 cards) on weekend. If you are thinking to apply this card now, I think you may need to think again.

The terms and conditions of these cards are now changed. Starting from 1 August 2015, it will be 5% Weekend Dining Cashback instead of 5% Weekend Cashback on all items (Maybank2 American Express).

I have this cards and they helped me to save a lot of money because most of my spendings (outside dining, groceries and departmental) are on weekend. It is sad that Maybank has changed the terms and conditions of the card and surprisingly I didn’t get any notice on the change from Maybank.

I think it is still good to keep the cards as the annual fees for both cards are lifetime waiver and there is no more government service tax (RM50) charges for credit card.

[Read more on the terms and conditions of the 5% Weekend Cashback]