PETALING JAYA: All Islamic banks will lower their base financing rate (BFR) and publish new rates individually in line with Bank Negara Malaysia’s further reduction of Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) from 2.50% to 2.00%.
In a statement yesterday, the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (Aibim) said with the lower base financing rate, customers with variable-rate financing facilities have the option of retaining their financing tenure.
This can be done while reducing monthly instalment payments or shortening the tenure while maintaining the original monthly instalment amount.
Visit www.aibim.com for the list of the Islamic banks’ customer service hotlines for more information.
-- Good news indeed. As a customer of one of the Islamic Banking Housing Loan, I greatly welcome the move, although it does not effect too much of my monthly payment, just a difference of RM 60. I received a letter from my bank informing me to pay less monthly, but I'm still paying the original amount before the lower BFR rate being announced. If given any choice to decide, I'll take the shortening the tenure option. I do hope when the economy is growing up again, they won't increase the BFR drastically, because I'm receiving a fixed income that won't increase even if the economy is good, and won't decrease even the economy is worse.
