Ahmad Rizal Mazlan

This research examines the effect of non-interest income on banks' performance in Malaysia, focusing on how diversification affects banks of different sizes. The study utilized a balanced panel data set of 14 commercial banks from 2008 to 2023 and employed panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) methodology, using Pooled Mean Group (PMG) to identify how income diversification influences bank performance across various bank sizes in Malaysia. The findings reveal that large banks benefit from non-interest income in both the short and long term, whereas small banks still depend on traditional banking in the long term. The reliance of small banks significantly affects the overall performance of the banking sector in Malaysia. It is recommended that regulators create a supportive framework for smaller banks to diversify into non-interest income activities, especially incorporating fintech, which has driven innovation in the financial industry. The study also highlights the regulator’s role in promoting non-interest-based revenue by encouraging industry players to adopt fintech innovations. This will help improve the stability and performance of Malaysia's overall banking sector, equipping banks to face future challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered investment strategies, particularly in bond markets. This study examines the global determinants of Malaysian government bond yields, comparing pre-pandemic and pandemic periods using daily data from January 2017 to May 2021. During the pandemic, Malaysian government bonds exhibited equity-like characteristics, diverging from their traditional safe-haven role, as evidenced by a positive relationship between bond yields and investor sentiment shocks. Gold prices emerged as the most influential factor, with their impact on bond yields becoming more pronounced during the pandemic, reaffirming gold's status as a safe-haven asset. The findings suggest that investors moved assets to gold during heightened risk periods before transitioning back to bonds. This highlights the need for investors to monitor gold prices and for policymakers to enhance bond market stability during crises to mitigate future economic uncertainties.

Kesan Pandemik COVID-19 Ke Atas Kesejahteraan Sosial Penduduk PPR Di Kuala Lumpur

Housing affordability is a global concern, especially among researchers and policymakers around the world in both developed and developing countries. In Malaysia, it has been a decade since the median multiple house price reaching more than a tripled median household income threshold in term of housing affordability. This indicates that housing in Malaysia is seriously unaffordable. In general, this study was conducted to examine the impact of monetary policy on housing affordability in Malaysia. This study focuses on investigating both short and long-run relationships between money supply and interest rate on housing affordability. To achieve this goal, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation techniques were employed on a quarterly data from the first quarter of 2008 until the first quarter of 2021. The findings showed the existence of long-run cointegration between all indicators except for the interest rate. In addition, money supply, interest rate, and employment were found to be significant in the short run. In the matter of policy implication, it is best for policymakers to focus on regulating money supply rather than controlling interest rate in promoting housing affordability.

The relationship between agency cost and corporate performance of manufacturing companies is examined in this study. The sample of this study is based on companies listed in Bursa Malaysia for the period from 2011 to 2016. A regression analysis was done and corporate performance is regressed against the predictor variables which where leverage, size, growth, expense, and efficiency. Data for both the dependent and predictor variables were obtained from Bursa Malaysia. This study found that in the model, three out of five proxy of agency costs are significantly related to corporate performance which measured by return on equity (ROE). The three variables which significantly related to corporate performance (ROE) are efficiency, leverage, and size with p-value 0.0226, 0.0002 and 0.0002 respectively. The other two variables found that not significantly related to corporate performance (ROE) which are company growth and expense with p-value 0.6915 and 0.3871 respectively. Hence the study found that agency cost to be significantly related to corporate performance.