58 commercial banks and 5 islamic banks shut down nationwide in 2016

KUALA LUMPUR: Some 68 bank branches from 63 banking institutions have been shut down nationwide this year.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Othman Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat the branches comprise those from 58 commercial banks and five Islamic banks.
He said the decisions were purely commercial and not related to Malaysia's state of economy.
Othman said some 1,425 bank employees have been retrenched in the last six months, with most of them laid-off via voluntary separation scheme (VSS).
As of the third quarter of 2016, there were 137,000 bank employees nationwide.
"The retrenchments were as a result of the restructuring of banking industry in the country and not particularly because of the branch closures," Othman said.
He was responding to Dr Mohd Hatta Md Ramli (Amanah-Kuala Krai), who asked the Finance Ministry to state the rationale behind the closure of commercial bank branches and potential retrenchments involved.
Last year, some 43 bank branches of 32 commercial banks and 11 Islamic banks were closed, also due to commercial reasons.
Othman said the closure of bank branches does not signal an economic crisis in Malaysia, but it is only due to restructuring of business strategy of respective banking institutions.