Monday, 20 October 2025

Digital Banks In Malaysia (Oct 2025)

 



Since Bank Negara gave out five digital bank licenses on April 2022, finally all 5 digital banks are all up and running now.

GX Bank, backed by its experienced shareholders, won the race to become Malaysia's first ever pure digital bank in Sep 2023, followed by Boost Bank in Jan 2024 and AEON Bank in May 2024.

KAF Digital Bank & Ryt Bank just recently joined the ranks in Aug 2025.

AEON Bank and KAF Digital Bank are Islamic digital banks while the others are not.

Lets see who are behind all these 5 digital banks.

Saturday, 11 October 2025

Solar PV System: String Inverter vs Microinverters



In my previous post "How To Choose A Rooftop Solar PV System", I mentioned that the orientation of solar panels might significantly affect the power output of the whole solar PV system with a centralized string inverter.

Besides, solar panels facing west seem to produce more energy compared to solar panels facing south, which contradicts the fact that south-facing is the best orientation for an area located north of the equator.

Anyway, I'm not an expert in this field. I'll just share my layman observation here.


Firstly, even though my house is facing south, it's not 100% south, it's actually about 10-20 degrees to the south west direction. 

The west facing roof is thus slightly tilted toward the northwest direction.

I guesstimate that the roof angle is about 45 degrees which is almost the same for all directions.

I installed 10 solar panels with 3 microinverters:

  • 4 panels with 1 microinverter facing south
  • 3 panels with 1 microinverter facing west
  • 3 panels with 1 microinverter facing west

There are fewer panels facing south because of space limitation on the south-facing roof.

There is a DTU (Data Transfer Unit) that transfers the data from the inverters to the app in my phone. From here I can check the energy & power output of each solar panels and the overall electricity generated in a day.

The DTU is connected to Wi-Fi and turned on 24/7.


Tuesday, 7 October 2025

How To Choose A Rooftop Solar PV System?

 


Previously I knew almost nothing about home solar PV system, and I thought installing it will cost a bomb.

However, because of significant drop in the price of solar panels & more intense competition among local solar companies, it is getting more affordable.

As it was my friend who first ignited my interest in installing the solar panels under NEM 3.0, initially I decided to appoint the same solar company as he chose.

I got a quotation but then I felt that I should do some research on this matter before I made my decision. It's not a small investment to me.

Luckily I did that.


Thursday, 2 October 2025

My Portfolio Sep25

Summary of September 2025












Portfolio @ End of Sep25



 








In Sep25, my portfolio rose 4.9%, which is easily its best performance YTD.

YTD portfolio loss has been narrowed to 6.1% which is the "best" level since Feb25.

KLCI continues its advance in Sep25 with a handsome 2.3% gain. 

I didn't make any transaction this month, and my portfolio was mainly lifted by Eupe, MFCB & Scientex which made more than 10% gain in a month.