What I use instead of a fixed deposit in Malaysia
Context
I enjoy watching finance content on YouTube, and a large majority of it is from American-based creators, and I've noticed that many of them use "High Yield Saving Accounts" as one of the bare minimum financial vehicles.
Unfortunately, here in Malaysia, there isn't a direct equivalent, as many of the large banks require you to jump through hoops fulfilling a minimum criteria to earn you “bonus” interest on your funds. For instance, there's the OCBC 360 ACCOUNT/-i that requires users to do these steps to qualify:
And another option is Standard Chartered's Privilege$aver that boasts up to 6.30% (only until early 2027 though; unsure what the figure is then) but requires users to have a minimum of RM100,000 in their balance and also fulfill these to gain bonus interest:
Personally, I do not enjoy these options. Firstly, RM100,000 is a lot to maintain in one singular account, and at this point in my life that would not be feasible. Second, I despise it when platforms like these require you to fulfill multiple criteria like these just to get the bonuses that they advertised slyly. The up to is always conveniently at a tiny font size in advertising campaigns.
I've been exploring options the past 2 years, and currently, as of the 22nd of March 2026, there are several alternatives one could take if they want to focus on safe and stable interests using their funds.
What are your options?
1. Your bank's fixed deposit program
This was what I started off with. My preferred bank of choice is CIMB1, and they have had various campaigns, the most attractive probably around 3.7-3.8%, but it requires you to lock in your money for at least 6-8 months. During non-campaign periods, it usually hovers around 2.5% with a stipulated lock-in period as well.
2. Money Market Fund (MMF) platforms
MMF is a relatively low-risk investment vehicle that invests in low-risk stuff like bank deposits and high-interest debts like government bonds or corporate papers. There's a pretty good comparison of what MMFs are compared to other well-known low-risk investments from FSMOne here:
For MMFs, there's a few that I think are fairly good deals right now:
KDI Save: 4% to your first RM50k, and then 3.5% to anything thereafter. I've been using KDI Save for more than a year, and I never had any problems aside from the UI of the app being quite dated compared to basically every other platform mentioned on this page. It is also not as liquid as other digital bank alternatives. No lock-ins, but withdrawal can take up to 2 working days.
MooMoo: 6% to your first RM30k for 30 days, and then 3.5% after. This is an okay deal, I would say, if you use MooMoo as your brokerage. Especially if you're a new user, you might also get entitled to their numerous welcome rewards. I regret not taking advantage of these rewards back when I first joined.
StashAway: StashAway is more popular in Singapore, I believe, and personally, I think it is worth it only if you plan to also use it paired with its ETF Explorer (flat fee of 1.99 USD for every purchase). However, they do have a Stashaway Simple MMF program that offers a projected 3.55% rate. So, not a guarantee, unfortunately.
Versa: Versa is another platform similar to StashAway in the sense that what it has going on strongest is its easy user experience. They have beautiful apps, and they are definitely geared towards those who want to have a very minimal routine with their investments. Versa is also guilty of the jumping-through-hoops issue just to gain the heavily advertised interest rates, though, and has high management fees for their non-MMF investment products.
3. Digital banks
Digital banks are an up-and-coming thing in Malaysia. Most of the popular ones are PIDM-insured (which cannot be said for every investment platform running in Malaysia), so you can have somewhat of a peace of mind using them. Some great contenders right now are:
Ryt Bank: Ryt is my favorite one out of the other options, as it offers the highest rate at 4% daily (first RM20000) up until the end of June this year, and it would drop back to 3% after. The UI is great, and the AI features are non-intrusive enough that they don't bother me too much.
More important, though, is that there are lock-ins and it can be instantly liquid. All the MMF and FD options are either locked in based on the terms you've agreed on to achieve the said higher percentage or take a few working days to withdraw the funds back to your bank account. Ryt does this instantly. DuitNow works great, and sending funds to accounts out of Ryt is easy too.
GX Bank: GX was a favorite at one point, and it was heavily advertised, as it is a subsidiary of Grab, a company that has monopolized the country's e-hailing and food delivery system. Using GX gave you extra benefits if you were a Grab user as well, and if you were based here, there was a high chance that you would be. However, its popularity sort of dropped after its promotional rate of 4% dropped to 2%, at which point many people close to me dropped it off altogether.
The good news is GX might be trying to address Ryt Bank's popularity and have introduced their 4% daily program as part of their Bonus Pockets feature. Although you need to lock in your funds for 6 months, you were allowed to deposit up to RM50,000. In addition to that, if you do decide to forfeit your 6-month tenure due to, perhaps, an emergency, you will still get the base rate of 2%. I don't think any bank fixed deposit does that, as far as I know.
My current setup
Currently I have a large portion of my portfolio being dominated by low-risk investments, which are distributed between:
- KDI: 47.1%
- Ryt Bank: 19.8%
- GX Bank: 19.9%
It's pretty simple why I kept these as my main platforms. KDI has been a stable and easy platform to use. When I started working, the only other alternative I knew of was bank fixed deposits, which can be limiting. Ryt and GX are both used because they are incredibly liquid, especially the former. Ryt is used more as my spending account nowadays as well, as you're able to split between pockets with ease, but you're not locked in like with GX.
However, I have been dollar-cost-averaging to alternative assets for higher growth, but I'm still dipping my toes and considering how I should split those relative to my more liquid and low-risk products.
I would be open to learning more about other platforms, and I'm sure one day I'll be sick of trying to catch the trend of whatever is new and offering the best promotional rates. But for now, I'm still trying to maximize the low-risk stuff while studying about the alternatives.
It is also the only bank that you can apply for PTPTN (education loans in Malaysia) with. I never swapped banks but may look to do so with Maybank down the line.↩