KUALA LUMPUR (April 22): Maybank on Monday unveiled its goal-based investment feature that simplifies digital retail investment for beginners and first-time investors, available on the MAE App and Maybank2U, for its Malaysia and Singapore customers.
 
With a RM200 initial investment and no lock-in period, this tool aims to provide a low barrier of entry to inculcate saving and investing habits among young adults.
 
The feature is structured and guided, allowing users to digitally invest, track financial goals and make adjustments to it when it is needed. Everything is done in-app, from setting up a unit trust account to picking out unit trust funds based on the user's investment risk appetite, financial objectives and financial timeline.
 
For convenience, goal options available are for retirement, children's education planning or growing wealth. The funds offered on the app are not just confined to those offered by Maybank, but other unit trust funds from third-party providers.
 
Users can opt to choose the app-recommended unit trust funds, or choose from a list of funds curated by the app based on their risk appetite. Users can choose up to five different funds and subsequently, allocate the weightage percentage for each fund.
 
The feature is open to non-Maybank customers as well, where all they need to do is sign up digitally for a Maybank savings or current account. For those who do not have an existing unit trust account with Maybank, they will be prompted to create an online account.
 
Maybank’s group chief digital officer Kalyani Nair said they are targeting to garner 20,000 new-to-bank users, on top of the current nine million users that bank has.
 
Speaking at the launch, Maybank’s group CEO of community financial services Syed Ahmad Taufiq Albar said Maybank is the first bank in the country to offer this feature, with the goal of lowering the entry barrier to make investing accessible and affordable for everyone.
 
“We are also committed to foster financial literacy and inclusivity across the community. We recognise that the younger generation prefers bite-sized investing that aligns to specific financial goals, such as saving for higher education or improving their wealth generally.”
 
“They also prefer performing banking activities digitally. To encourage responsible financial habits especially among young adults and youths, we developed this to help start their investment journeys while making informed investment decisions,” he said.

During a demonstration of how the feature works, Maybank’s strategic programme director Joanne Lee said that the idea is for the investment to be “your portfolio based on your rules”.
 
She says the app does provide recommendations of unit trust funds, but users also have control to pick and choose other funds that are within their risk appetite.
 
First, users will need to answer a series of questions to determine their risk appetite — ranging from conservative to aggressive — after which, users can decide on their respective financial goals.
 
For the education fund option, users can save for themselves or their children. They will need to input the year in which the funds are to be withdrawn and once that is done, select the university (locally or internationally) and course they are interested in. An estimated amount of how much a user needs to save and invest for future education will be displayed.
 
“The amount also includes the estimation on living expenses. And when you know how much is needed to set aside, one can start simulating how much they need to invest in regular top-ups, see how big the gap is and how close they are to achieving the goal,” she said.
 
For the retirement option, the questions posed are on the estimated amount one would need for their monthly expenses, at what age they would like to retire and how many years their funds are to last post-retirement.
 
Users can also input the amount already saved in their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) account to know how much one would need to input monthly to reach the retirement goal.
 
Once a user sets up and picks their funds, it takes one to two business days for the application to be processed and to be reflected in the app or Maybank2U dashboard. Kalyani said this will be added to the “Wealth” tab on the dashboard, where users can see their wealth at a glance.
 
Both conventional and shariah-compliant funds are available, while sales charge is set at a maximum of 1.5%. From now until June 25, 2024, customers can also enjoy a 0% sales charge on their initial investment.