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As of June 2026, 39% of active Malaysian Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members in the formal sector were meeting the Basic Savings benchmark for their age, up from 36% a year earlier
That means roughly four in 10 members are currently on track to have RM390,000 in retirement savings by age 60.
The figure was highlighted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during the EPF International Social Wellbeing Conference 2026 in Kuala Lumpur today, 29 September. The conference is organised around the longer-term challenges of ageing, retirement, and social protection, according to the New Straits Times.
The government's stated aim under the EPF's Retirement Income Adequacy (RIA) framework is to raise the proportion of members reaching the Basic Savings benchmark to 60% by 2030.
So, what does the RM390,000 target actually mean?
The RM390,000 figure is the EPF's Basic Savings level under its three-tier RIA framework, which came into effect in 2026.
The framework sets three retirement savings benchmarks:
- Basic Savings: RM390,000
- Adequate Savings: RM650,000
- Enhanced Savings: RM1.3 million
The RM390,000 Basic Savings level is intended to cover essential retirement needs, while RM650,000 is the level EPF considers sufficient for a reasonable standard of living. The RM1.3 million Enhanced Savings level represents a higher level of financial security in retirement.
The RM650,000 Adequate Savings benchmark is based on estimated spending of RM2,690 a month for a single senior living in the Klang Valley over 20 years of retirement. The Basic Savings level is set at 60% of that amount.
EPF estimates that RM390,000 would support an initial monthly withdrawal of about RM1,625 in the first year of retirement under its framework, with the projected monthly amount increasing over the following 20 years.
However, the majority of EPF members are still below the Basic Benchmark
The improvement from 36% to 39% represents a three-percentage-point increase in one year. But it also means that 61% of active Malaysian EPF members in the formal sector had not reached the Basic Savings benchmark for their age as of June 2026.
That gap is one of the issues the RIA framework is intended to address.
EPF has said the framework is designed to shift how members think about retirement savings, from simply accumulating a lump sum to considering how those savings can provide an income throughout retirement.
Anwar also pointed to the difficulty of asking people to prioritise retirement savings when they are already dealing with immediate expenses such as food, rent, and schooling.
He said retirement security therefore had to be considered alongside wages, employment, and people's ability to save consistently.
"For a household managing food, rent and school expenses, the horizon may be the end of the week," he said.
EPF is also trying to make retirement savings last longer
The RM390,000 benchmark is not the only change EPF has introduced. In May, EPF introduced i-Emas, its branding for monthly payments under the existing Age 55/60 Withdrawal, allowing eligible members to receive regular income from their retirement savings rather than taking the money entirely as a lump sum.
It also introduced i-Legasi, which allows eligible members with savings above the RM650,000 Adequate Savings level to transfer the excess to the EPF accounts of their immediate family members.
According to EPF, more than 25,000 members had opted for monthly withdrawals as of June 2026, including more than 7,000 members aged 55 and more than 19,000 aged 60.
The broader question, however, remains how many Malaysians will be able to build enough savings in the first place.
For now, the latest EPF figures show some progress: the share of active formal-sector members meeting the Basic Savings benchmark has risen from 36% to 39% in a year. But the same figures also show that six in 10 remain below the benchmark for their age.
