In recent years, whenever PNB opened up additional quotas for ASM, ASM 2 Wawasan, and ASM 3, they were sold out within a short span of time.

Malaysians poured their savings into the funds. PNB’s fixed-price funds are popular with the masses because they pay decent dividends, yet the closing price is always RM1. Therefore, a fund investor only experiences the upside, with no downside risk.

This is unlike other unit trusts. These are the perfect investments: heads you win, tails you also win.

But here’s the thing: PNB’s record has been mixed in recent years.

It was far better in the ’90s, when returns easily exceeded 8%. Back then, it was truly a fund people could depend on for great returns. Generations of savers put their money into PNB and were richly rewarded.

If you invest in the market, you know it is not easy to get an 8% return consistently. Yet, PNB did it without causing the investor to incur any losses. That is a feat for which many Malaysians owe their gratitude.

In recent years, though, the returns have barely exceeded 5%. You could say the EPF has a better track record these days.

Many things have happened. PNB participated in a few rights issues. In retrospect, it seems hard to understand why those decisions were made if returns were the sole determinant.

But here is where Maybank takes center stage in determining PNB’s returns.

In 2025, the total dividend paid out by PNB across its funds was RM15.3 billion.

As Maybank’s largest shareholder—controlling nearly half the bank—PNB pulled in an estimated RM3.5 billion just from Maybank’s dividend payouts that year. A quick calculation shows that roughly 23% of all PNB dividends are funded solely by Maybank.

In 1996, Bruce Willis was in his prime. He was the de facto action movie star of that era. That year, he starred in the movie Last Man Standing.

In PNB’s stable of companies, some have not been performing well. The new PNB CEO comes from the consulting industry—the type of person called in to right the ship when it is not sailing properly.

But turnarounds take time, and someone has to pay the dividends while the turnaround work plays out in those other companies.

In PNB’s movie to turn around corporate Malaysia, Maybank is the last man standing. Behind Maybank is a legion of PNB investors counting on their dividends. The villains are the non-performing companies whose weight it needs to carry.