Agro Bank Malaysia

Agrobank, (formerly Bank Pertanian Malaysia), the Agricultural Bank of Malaysia, is a government-owned bank in Malaysia which main role is to promote the agricultural sector through mobilization of lending facilities and savings in rural areas.

History

It was established in 1969 under the Act of the Parliament of Malaysia No.9/69 on September 1 1969 as "A development finance institution directly involved in financing the agriculture sector." It commenced operations on Jan 1st, 1970.

On December 12 2007, Dewan Rakyat (the Lower House of the Parliament) has approved the proposed Bank Pertanian Malaysia 2007 Bill to incorporate Bank Pertanian with a paid-up capital of RM1 billion to enable it to be competitive with other financial institutions and empower it to help develop agriculture as the third engine of growth under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

The corporatization will enable the bank to offer competitive and comprehensive financial products and venture into new business activities which the bank is currently unable to undertake due to the limitation of the current BPM act. Among the new products and activities will be agriculture, life and general insurance, credit card service, credit guarantee, investment, capital market, internet banking and current account.

On December 19 2007, Dewan Negara (the Upper House) approved the bill.

On 8 April 2008, Bank Pertanian Malaysia changes its new name to Agrobank.