Malaysia's Big Banks: Maybank, CIMB, Public Bank, RHB and Hong Leong

Line up the five names that dominate almost every Malaysian high street — Maybank, CIMB, Public Bank, RHB and Hong Leong — and you are looking at the core of a banking system that clears the country’s salaries, mortgages and trade. They are all Malaysian-incorporated, all listed on Bursa Malaysia, and all licensed by the same central bank. Beyond that, they diverge sharply: one dwarfs the rest in scale, some are effectively government-anchored, and two are still steered by the families that founded them.

Who counts as one of Malaysia’s “big five” banks?

The label is about scale and domestic roots. Each of these five is a home-grown group that anchors a large slice of the local market, rather than a Malaysian branch of a foreign bank. The gap between them is wide — Maybank is the largest of the group, while Public Bank describes itself as the country’s third-largest banking group by assets, and RHB reported total assets of about RM350 billion for FY2024.

The clearest like-for-like comparison across all five is profitability:

Group	Net profit	Return on equity	Financial year
Maybank (Malayan Banking)	RM10.09 billion	11.1%	FY2024 (Dec)
CIMB Group	RM7.73 billion	11.2%	FY2024 (Dec)
Public Bank	RM7.15 billion	12.8%	FY2024 (Dec)
RHB Bank	RM3.12 billion	10.04%	FY2024 (Dec)
Hong Leong Bank	RM4.20 billion	11.8%	FY2024 (Jun)

Net profit and return-on-equity figures are group numbers from each bank’s FY2024 results announcements. Hong Leong Bank’s financial year ends 30 June, so its figures are not strictly comparable in timing with the four December year-end groups.

A few things stand out. Maybank is in a league of its own on the bottom line — its RM10.09 billion net profit, up 7.9% year-on-year, is the largest of any Malaysian bank. Public Bank is a study in efficiency rather than size: it is only the third-largest by assets, yet its 12.8% return on equity is the highest of the five, a reputation built on conservative lending and low costs. Hong Leong reports a higher net profit than RHB despite being a smaller regional player, helped by contributions from its associate investments.

What licence lets them operate — and who watches them?

Every one of these banks runs on a licence from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the central bank, granted under the Financial Services Act 2013 (FSA 2013). Their Islamic banking arms — Maybank Islamic, CIMB Islamic, Public Islamic and the others — operate under the parallel Islamic Financial Services Act 2013. BNM does far more than issue the licence: it sets capital rules, supervises risk, and vets who is allowed to own a meaningful share of a bank.

That ownership gatekeeping is stricter than most people realise. Under the FSA 2013 framework, holding a substantial stake in a licensed bank requires BNM’s approval, and an individual’s shareholding is capped — reporting on the Public Bank case summarised the rule as an individual being able to hold 5% of a bank, a level that can be raised to 10% only with BNM’s approval. The rule made headlines when the founding family of Public Bank confirmed a plan to cut its combined stake from about 23.4% down to 10% over five years to align with the framework — the larger legacy holding having been grandfathered in when the Act took effect in 2013. It is a reminder that in Malaysia, control of a bank is a privilege the regulator actively polices.

Who actually owns them?

Here the five split cleanly into two camps. Three are anchored by government-linked investment companies (GLICs) — the state-owned funds that manage Malaysians’ retirement and unit-trust savings — and two remain in founder-family hands.

Group	Largest / controlling shareholder	Ownership character
Maybank	Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and its Amanah Saham funds; EPF also a top holder	Government-linked (GLIC)
CIMB	Khazanah Nasional, with EPF, KWAP and PNB	Government-linked (GLIC)
RHB Bank	Employees Provident Fund (EPF)	Government-linked (GLIC)
Public Bank	Teh family, via Consolidated Teh Holdings	Founder family
Hong Leong Bank	Quek family, via Hong Leong Financial Group	Founder family

For Maybank, the anchor is Permodalan Nasional Berhad and its giant Amanah Saham Bumiputera fund, which together make it one of the most widely held names in the country. CIMB lists Khazanah Nasional — Malaysia’s strategic investment fund — alongside the EPF, the civil-service pension fund KWAP and PNB as its major shareholders; foreign investors held 29.7% of CIMB as at end-June 2026. RHB is anchored by the Employees Provident Fund, the national retirement fund, as its single largest shareholder.

The other two carry their founders’ names into the present. Public Bank was built by the late Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow from 1966, and the Teh family still controls it through Consolidated Teh Holdings. Hong Leong Bank sits within the wider Hong Leong conglomerate controlled by the Quek family through Hong Leong Financial Group. This ownership split shapes how the banks are often described: the GLIC-anchored groups are closely tied to state-linked funds and national savings vehicles, while the family-controlled pair are frequently associated with long-tenured, founder-led management.

How far beyond Malaysia do they reach?

Size at home does not always translate into the widest map abroad — regional ambition varies.

• CIMB is the most self-consciously regional, branding itself an ASEAN-focused group with businesses spread across markets including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
• Maybank operates three “home markets” — Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia — plus a presence across the rest of ASEAN and in major global financial centres.
• RHB runs a focused regional network across seven markets: Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia and Lao PDR.
• Public Bank and Hong Leong are more domestically weighted, though both have footholds in Indochina and Greater China respectively, alongside their core Malaysian business.

The pattern is that the two largest groups, Maybank and CIMB, are also the two that most explicitly position themselves as pan-ASEAN institutions, while the mid-sized players concentrate their firepower closer to home.

What’s next

Malaysia’s big five are stable, profitable and tightly supervised — but not static. Watch three things. First, the slow rebalancing of ownership at Public Bank as the Teh family works down to the 10% level under the FSA framework, which reshapes its share register year by year. Second, competition from digital banks now licensed by BNM, which will test how well the incumbents defend everyday deposits and payments. Third, the regional economies — Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand especially — where CIMB, Maybank and RHB earn a share of their profit and take on a share of their risk.

For the latest audited figures, always check each group’s own investor-relations pages and quarterly results, and BNM’s published statistics for sector-wide data. The numbers here are drawn from the FY2024 reporting cycle and will move with each new set of results.