Signet Share Registration Services today signed an Agreement with Maybank for the provision of ^eDividend Services via Maybank2^e.net with Signet Share Registration Services Sdn Bhd (“SSRS”), a member of the Symphony Group of Companies.

The Agreement was signed by Dato’ Azman Yahya, Group Chief Executive of the Symphony Group and Encik Abdul Hamid Sheikh Mohamed, Executive Director of Symphony House, on behalf of SSRS, while Maybank was represented by Dato’ Mohammed Hussein, Deputy President and En Muhamad Umar Swift, Executive Vice President and Head of Enterprise Financial Services Group.

The Agreement is for the management of cash from companies paying out their dividend payment direct to shareholders’ accounts. Signet Share Registration Services (“SSRS”) acts as Share Registrars for over 200 public listed companies and is one of the largest and most experienced share registrars in the country. Together with Malaysian Share Registration Services (“MSRS”) acquired by Symphony in January 2004, the newly merged entity is the clear market leader of the industry, with an estimated market share of approximately 360 companies or over 40% of the share registration services for public listed companies in the country. The Direct Dividend Payment Service or ‘DDPS’, was earlier launched on the 22 September 2003 by SSRS to the Malaysian capital market.

Under this agreement, Signet will subscribe to Maybank’s ^eDividend service under its cash management portal, Maybank2^e.net. Arising from this, Maybank will take over the processing and issuing of dividend payment for selected companies in which Signet acts as share registrar. This includes taking over the activities such as dividend and tax calculations, warrant processing and printing of physical warrants and cheques.

In addition, Signet will enjoy the convenience of monitoring its dividend payments and status reports via the web from anywhere, 24 hours a day. It will also be able to download and reconcile their reports online via Maybank2^e.net, thus enabling them greater flexibility in managing their accounts.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dato’ Mohammed Hussein welcomed Signet into the world of internet convenience which the bank has introduced for the processing and payment of dividends to shareholders.

“I am confident that by leveraging on the power of information technology through the Maybank2^e.net platform, Signet will benefit from our straight-through processing that eliminates the previously tedious manual work in preparing dividend payments or monitoring its status,” said Dato’ Mohammed Hussein.

Dato’ Mohammed Hussein added that Maybank2^e.net is continuously evolving to provide best-in-class Payment Services to meet both commercial and corporate customer’s cash management needs. As a Payment Power House, Maybank2^e.net is further enhanced to provide other related payment services to cover both domestic and foreign disbursements. This includes single and bulk issuances, salary payments, standing instructions, Funds Transfer, Trade Bills, and not limited to Custody settlements. Statutory bodies contribution such as EPF and SOCSO are also part of the payments services provided and forms a subset our Payroll Services we offer under maybank2.net. Under the cash management system suite of products, all disbursements can be made through cheques, Intrabank, Interbank (GIRO and RENTAS) and SWIFT cross border as part of the payment methods (gateways).

“Continuing from our success in providing internet based channel for retail customers , viz. maybank2u.com, which has more than 1.37 million users and 387 payee corporations registered contributing to transaction throughput of 2.84 million per month, Maybank embarked to provide enterprise cash management services via both internet (Maybank2^e.net) and intranet ( via desktop banking) to it’s commercial and corporate customers. Todate, total cash management customers stands at 2,641 comprises of 2,141 intranet and 500 internet based. This registers a month-to-month growth rate of 30% for intranet services and 40% for internet based services. Consolidated revenue growth for cash management is about 20% average on month-to-month contributed from 43% volume surge through Maybank2^e.net. As part of our success in relating to international payment services, Maybank was selected as the best foreign exchange bank in Malaysia by Global Finance. This further stems our commitment to provide global payment systems as part of our strategic offerings,” he added.

En Abdul Hamid in his speech said, “The introduction of the DDPS service was a small step taken in the Malaysian capital market, but we believe will have a wider impact on the working efficiencies of the industry especially for Companies that have to manage the administration of their public shareholdings. Other countries such as Australia, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong had long since had their versions of it and it was about time this type of service was brought to the Malaysian capital market for the benefit of its capital market participants. This collaboration between SSRS and Maybank will further enhance efficiencies of our corporate clients.”

He further added that, “Today, we have taken the dividend distribution service to the next level. With the advent of better business technology and communication channels, our clients’ shareholders will now be able to enjoy a comprehensive, systematic direct dividend payment service with this ^eDividend Payment Service, via Maybank’s internet portal, Maybank2^e.net. Shareholders who get this service will no longer need to wait for cheques to come through the mail and queue at the banks, since their dividend is directly credited into their bank accounts. For a small cost to the company that will drive efficiencies, the savings to shareholders in terms of actual cost are huge and with added security for a peace of mind – no more lost cheques in the mail. The Symphony Group is proud to collaborate with Maybank, who has excellent track record in its internet business transactions, and we certainly hope this collaboration will flourish and extend to other areas as we pursue the objective of making our capital market secure, efficient and reliable.”

Maybank is the first local bank to introduce the ^eDividend service that offers many benefits to corporate customers, among them, cost saving, convenience, easy to use, security and flexibility. It is available on Maybank2^e.net and accessible anywhere, 24 hours a day, all year round.

It also offers a new auto-crediting facility that can pay the dividend directly into a shareholder's bank account as well as a new report generation facility that outputs various reports on the status of the dividend payment. The customer can conveniently view or download and reconcile their reports online via Maybank2^e.net.

The new auto-crediting facility dispenses with cheque issuance by the company and cheque deposit by the shareholders. Shareholders will also receive their dividends much earlier and the dividend payment can be made to an account in Maybank or other banks. The shareholder only provides his account number to the company or registrar. Alternatively it can also print cheques and warrants for the conventional mode of dividend payment for collection at the counter or mail to shareholders.