Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) is the largest financial services group in Malaysia and has a regional presence in 18 countries, including all 10 ASEAN countries with Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia as its home markets. It is also the largest listed company in Malaysia with a market capitalisation of around RM100 billion. In ASEAN, it is the fourth largest bank by asset size.

I took the opportunity to attend its recent annual general meeting. Here are 12 things I learned from the 2019 Maybank AGM:

1. Dividend per share grew 3.6% year-on-year to 57 sen in 2018, which translates to a total dividend payout of RM6.3 billion. As a result, dividend payout ratio stood at 77.3% in 2018. It also managed to sustain its dividend yield at about 6.0%. Maybank’s dividend payout ratio ranges between 40% and 60% as per its policy and has been paying a dividend above its