“The issuance of income distribution electronically by Maybank is a great effort that is expected to improve the overall competency and efficiency of ASNB’s services to its unit holders. As a unit trust management company, ASNB, which manages funds worth over RM45 billion and has over 8 million account holders, continues to explore and identify the best ways to ensure that its unit holders receive excellent services,” said Tan Sri Dato’ Hamad Kama Piah Bin Che Othman, President & Group Chief Executive of PNB at the signing ceremony.

With the current technological advancement, business operations carried out electronically have become a necessity for consumers. The e-dividend system, which is being jointly developed by PNB and Maybank, is the first step towards achieving this online global trend.
“This effort is seen to be the most efficient and convenient way to ensure that the payment of income distribution through cheque or direct credit into the accounts of ASNB’s account holders is done promptly and safely. The direct monitoring of the unit holders’ data by ASNB and Maybank is also expected to assist ASNB in identifying if the unit holders have received their income distribution and in getting prompt response from them,” Tan Sri Hamad added.

Dato' Mohammed Hussein, in his address said, “With ^eDividend, ASNB will be able to automate many of their time consuming manual processing of dividend issuance to their account holders. ASNB will immediately implement ^eDividend for its Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 unit holders, where the first stage will involve the printing of cheques and warrants. ^eDividend also offers the option to pay dividend directly into an account holder's bank account and upon full implementation, by ASNB, the account holders will enjoy this auto-debit convenience when receiving their dividends. In the long run, there is the shared benefit of a common database to provide the auto-debit convenience to customers."

“^eDividend offers straight through processing, providing cost and time saving benefits, as well as increase in staff productivity as it requires less manpower to prepare dividend payments. It is also able to generate a series of comprehensive reports that offers better monitoring and control of the dividend issuances. As a web-based solution via Maybank2^e.net platform, ^eDividend also allows convenient access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week anytime and anywhere," Dato' Mohammed Hussein said, adding that ^eDividend can cater to both registrars and corporations.

ASNB is the first corporation to adopt the ^eDividend system while two registrars, Maybank Registrar and Signet Share Registration Services Sdn Berhad, have already used it for their dividend payment operations.

"^eDividend is resilient and a proven solution to handle large volumes as well as meet the needs of our customers. It is about delivering cost efficiency, greater convenience to account holders and improving productivity to enable the organisation to focus on other customer-related business issues to increase their profitability. ASNB's adoption of ^eDividend is a testimony to Maybank's commitment to providing innovative financial solutions and services to our customers," added Dato Mohammed Hussein.