Bursa Malaysia Bank Stocks: Yields, Payouts and Valuation (October 2026)
· 7 min
Data as of 29 October 2026.
Eight banks are listed on Bursa Malaysia, and together they are RM 396.6 billion of the market — more than half of the twenty largest companies on the exchange. For a Malaysian investor, "the market" and "the banks" overlap heavily enough that understanding these eight is not optional.
The Eight Bursa Malaysia Banks
| Code | Bank | Market cap | P/E | Yield | 12-mo DPS (RM) | Payments | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1155 | Malayan Banking Berhad | RM 120.95b | 13 | 5.91% | 0.64 | 2 | 65 |
| 1295 | Public Bank Berhad | RM 91.81b | 13.2 | 4.46% | 0.22 | 2 | 66 |
| 1023 | CIMB Group Holdings Berhad | RM 74.45b | 10.8 | 6.82% | 0.47 | 3 | 50 |
| 5819 | Hong Leong Bank Berhad | RM 44.38b | 10.4 | 4.45% | 1.10 | 2 | 67 |
| 1066 | RHB Bank Berhad | RM 32.71b | 10.7 | 5.96% | 0.50 | 2 | 78 |
| 1015 | AMMB Holdings Berhad | RM 20.83b | 10.1 | 5.56% | 0.35 | 2 | 68 |
| 2488 | Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad | RM 7.87b | 9.8 | 4.06% | 0.19 | 2 | 67 |
| 5258 | Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad | RM 4.53b | 9.1 | 8.52% | 0.14 | 2 | 71 |
Yield is a trailing figure. Where the market data feed returned zero for a bank that has declared payments, Divvy computes the yield from those payments and the last traded price — that is why CIMB shows 6.82% here rather than the blank it carried before. 12-mo DPS sums declared amounts with an ex-date between 29 October 2025 and 29 October 2026; it and the yield use slightly different windows, so they do not reconcile exactly.
What the numbers say
The spread in yield is wide for a sector that is economically uniform. All eight lend, take deposits and answer to the same regulator. Yet trailing yields run from 4.06% (Alliance) to 8.52% (Bank Islam) — more than four points across businesses doing the same thing, with a median of 5.73%.
The highest yield is on the smallest bank. Bank Islam at RM 4.53 billion pays 14.45 sen for 8.52%, roughly double Maybank's 5.91% on a bank twenty-seven times its size. That gap is the market charging for something — liquidity, growth expectations, or a view on the business. A yield twice the sector median is a question, not a bargain.
CIMB pays three times a year — the only bank here that does. It declares 47 sen across those three payments for a 6.82% yield, the second highest of the eight, at 10.8× earnings. It also carries the lowest score (50): a bank with three distributions a year is not automatically a better business than one with two.
P/E clusters tightly and low. Every bank sits between 9.1× and 13.2× earnings, and Bank Islam — not AMMB — is the cheapest at 9.1×. There is no bank in this dataset at a growth multiple — the signature of a mature, rate-sensitive, regulated sector. When seven of eight trade near 10× and one trades at 13.2×, the market is making a statement about that one.
Payouts come twice or three times a year. Seven banks declared two payments in the window; CIMB declared three. A single year's total is what you have to reconstruct to judge a yield — which is why the yield figure alone tells you less than the payment history beneath it.
The trap in a bank's yield
A bank's dividend is not set by profit alone. It is set by capital adequacy: the regulator requires a buffer, and a bank growing its loan book must retain earnings to keep it. Two banks with identical profits can pay very different dividends because one is growing and one is not.
That is why a high bank yield often means the market expects little growth. It is also why a dividend cut is a bigger event for a bank than for an industrial: it reads as a capital decision, not just an earnings one.
The second trap is cyclicality. Net interest margins move with the policy rate, so earnings across all eight move together. Eight banks is diversification of name, not of exposure.
Choosing between them, honestly
This dataset cannot tell you which bank is best. It can tell you what the market is paying for each — the input you need before looking at loan growth, asset quality and capital ratios, none of which are here.
What it can do is make the comparison concrete: eight names, one table, same date, same measures.
Where to go next
- Maybank, Public Bank and Hong Leong compared — the three largest, on the same figures
- Dividend yield leaders — all 150 tracked stocks ranked
- Financials sector — all thirteen financial stocks, including insurers and the exchange
- Dividend calendar — declared ex-dates and pay dates
Divvy scores published financials from a dated snapshot. Nothing here is a recommendation or investment advice.