Malaysian Banks Cut Lending Rates in Line with BNM’s Latest Rate Cut

May 07, 2020

Several Malaysian banks have announced cuts in lending rates following Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) drastic cut in interest rates on the 5th of May 2020, bringing the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) to its lowest level since 2010. Malayan Banking (Maybank) and CIMB Group Holdings were the first banks to announce rate cut after BNM’s OPR was reduced by 50 basis points (bps) to 2.00%.

According to Maybank, its base rate (BR) would be lowered to 2.00% from 2.50% per annum, while its base lending rate (BLR) would be cut to 5.65% from 6.15%, with similar cuts for its Islamic banking operations. Meanwhile, CIMB Bank and CIMB Islamic Bank also announced a 50 bps reduction in their BR, as well as BLR.