3 July 2025
This in line with the Government’s GEAR-uP initiative to champion equitable and market based compensation
Kuala Lumpur: CIMB Group Holdings Berhad (“CIMB” or “the Group”) continues to uphold its purpose of advancing customers and society by promoting inclusive growth and long-term value creation for its employees. Through a range of initiatives, including reskilling and upskilling programmes, CIMB aims to provide a workplace where employees can thrive and grow, reflecting its commitment in building a more inclusive, resilient and empowered workforce.
In line with that, the Group announces that all its permanent employees in Malaysia are currently earning above the national living wage threshold of RM3,100 per month as outlined in the Employee Provident Fund’s Belanjawanku Expenditure Guide. This commitment fully supports the Ministry of Finance’s Government-Linked Companies Empowerment and Reform (“GEAR-uP”) initiative in championing equitable, market-based compensation practices, underscoring CIMB’s strong commitment to fair and inclusive compensation practices, ensuring every employee in Malaysia is able to achieve a dignified standard of living.
The Group is committed to equipping its workforce with the tools and capabilities needed to stay competitive and future-ready. As part of this commitment, CIMB aims to accelerate investment in training and development, with over RM100 million committed for 2025 to focus on future skills such as digital, artificial intelligence (“AI”), data and sustainability. In 2024, 2.66 million learning hours have been delivered with a ramp up on digital, data and AI skills in line with CIMB’s commitment to strengthen its capabilities in the area.
To strengthen its leadership pipeline, CIMB continues to build agile leaders across all levels through its Signature Leadership Programmes, delivered in partnership with globally recognised institutions such as IMD Business School, Melbourne Business School, Asia School of Business and Global Institute for Tomorrow. To support career growth, CIMB also offers “Navigating My Career”, a personalised career development platform that enables internal mobility, skills assessment, and long-term career planning. In line with its focus on developing talent across the ASEAN network, the Group offers the “Regional Mobility” programme, which has facilitated 167 regional assignments since 2024 and “The Complete Banker” graduate programme where high achieving young talents can gain valuable regional rotation experience.
CIMB’s flexible benefits programme is a key pillar in its strategy to engage and empower talents, allowing employees to customise their benefits to suit their personal needs, including physical and mental wellbeing, family care, or medical coverage. In addition, the Group’s flexible working arrangements support better work-life integration through hybrid work, community time-off and flexibility for working mothers. Employees also benefit from initiatives on counselling, targeted financial assistance and preferential loan rates. These efforts have led to higher employee engagement, with CIMB’s Organisational Health Index (“OHI”) score sustaining its position in the top quartile across ASEAN at 84% with improved productivity and enhanced overall wellbeing across the workforce.
Novan Amirudin, Group Chief Executive Officer, CIMB Group said, “CIMB has long committed to fair and market-based compensation practices as part of its Total Rewards framework for employees. As a natural progress, we are fully supportive of the GEAR-uP initiative to ‘raise the floor’ of wages, and are committed to a continuous journey of proactive partnership and engagement with our stakeholders. Our approach to compensation goes beyond salaries which includes holistic rewards, equitable remuneration structures and allowances that reflect the contributions and value of our people. We strive to be an organisation that not only empowers our employees professionally but also supports them personally to ensure they succeed on both fronts. When our employees thrive and grow, so does the organisation and society benefits as a whole.”
As a leading focused ASEAN bank, CIMB recognises that employees are the Group’s greatest asset and are central to its strategy of building a high performing and engaged workforce through fair employment practices, and inclusive, holistic development including upskilling and reskilling employees to be ready for the future of work — supporting both individual growth and national progress.
