Public Islamic Bank Berhad is the Islamic arm of the Public Bank group, Malaysia's most conservatively run major banking franchise. It is a separately licensed Islamic bank under IFSA 2013 (company number 197301001433), with its own five-scholar Shariah Committee and its own product shelf. The house personality carries over from the parent: careful, quiet, and allergic to marketing noise. That has two consequences for customers. The good one is disclosure discipline where it counts, including the freshest term deposit rate sheet we found among the big six. The frustrating one is that some of the bank's best products barely advertise themselves. We crawled publicislamicbank.com.my on 6 August 2026; every figure below carries that verification date unless stated otherwise.
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Savings: ask for ForU2Save by name
The flagship Commodity Murabahah Savings Account-i puts the contract in its own name and opens with RM250. The standard tiers, effective 16 January 2025, are weak: 0.00% on the first RM10,000, 0.05% on the next RM350,000, 0.15% on the next RM500,000 and 0.25% after that. Most savers should ignore them, because the same deposit rates page prints the CM ForU2Save Savings Account-i at 2.10% per annum on the first RM50,000, with no salary crediting requirement, no spend quota and no behaviour hoops in the printed table. That is the best unconditional printed savings rate among Malaysia's six largest Islamic banking franchises.
The comparison is stark. RHB Islamic's Smart Account-i can reach a higher headline number, but only by stacking bonus conditions. Hong Leong Islamic pays effectively zero below RM200,000 on its standard account. Maybank Islamic prints no savings rate at all. Public Islamic's 2.10% simply sits there in the rate table, attached to a variant most walk-in customers have never heard of. There is also a CM PB MySalary Savings Account-i rising to 1.00% for salary crediting. Our best Islamic savings accounts comparison puts all of these against the digital banks, which pay more but cap balances.
One disclosure detail deserves praise. The bank publishes a 5.00% Ceiling Profit Rate used as the Commodity Murabahah selling price, with customers earning the effective rate. That is exactly how Tawarruq deposits should be documented, and most rivals leave the mechanics buried in the product disclosure sheet. If the ceiling rate concept is new to you, our guide to how Islamic deposit returns work walks through it.
Term deposits: 2.00% from just 13 months
The Term Deposit-i is where Public Islamic's disclosure is freshest. The rate sheet we crawled carried an effective date of 5 August 2026, one day before our verification. The printed grid: 1.70% for 1 to 3 months, 1.80% for 4 to 6 months, 1.85% for 7 to 12 months and 2.00% for 13 to 60 months. Minimum placement is RM5,000 for one month or RM1,000 from two months, the account is capital guaranteed under the named Murabahah and Tawarruq contracts, and the PB eTerm Deposit-i placed online pays identical rates.
The number that matters is the 13-month threshold. CIMB Islamic pays slightly more at 2.05%, but requires a 36-month commitment to get there. Public Islamic gets you to 2.00% at 13 months, which makes it the most efficient printed route to a 2% Islamic deposit rate among the big six. Short-tenor money does marginally better elsewhere: 1.70% at 1 to 3 months trails the 1.75% printed at CIMB and RHB. Full grids for every bank are in our term deposit rates comparison.
Current accounts: honest labels, an old-fashioned hurdle
The CM Current Account-i opens with RM3,000 for individuals or RM5,000 for businesses, carries no minimum balance, and describes itself plainly as non-profit bearing. Yield seekers are pointed to the CM Plus variant, which prints tiers from 0.10% to 0.80% above RM3.5 million (effective 16 January 2025). An optional Cash Line Facility-i, an Islamic revolving credit line, can be attached on application, which is a genuinely useful documented feature for sole traders. The quirk is the introducer requirement: you need an existing customer to vouch for you at opening, a piece of old banking culture that survives almost nowhere else. Businesses holding large float should compare RHB Islamic's profit-paying current account tiers before choosing; our current accounts comparison has the detail.
Home financing: the thinnest page of the six
Home Equity Financing-i is the flagship property product: purchase and refinancing over tenures up to 35 years, a redraw facility on excess payments, and preferential rates for green and environment-friendly purposes, a printed feature none of the other five banks offer. The bank also participates in the First Home Mortgage Guarantee Programme for eligible first-time buyers. Then comes the gap: no product-specific profit rate, no margin of financing and no contract name appear in the page text. The only printed pricing is the bank-level reference framework as at 11 July 2025: Standardised Base Rate 2.75%, Base Rate 3.27%, Base Financing Rate 6.47%.
That makes Public Islamic the least transparent of the six on mortgage pricing. Bank Islam prints a 3.55% effective rate; Hong Leong Islamic prints a full worked example at 3.60%. Extract the effective rate from Public Islamic's PDS, then benchmark it against those anchors using our home financing rates comparison before you sign anything.
Vehicle and personal financing: named contracts, missing rates
AITAB Hire Purchase-i has the cleanest contract labelling of any vehicle financing page we crawled: Al Ijarah Thumma Al-Bai, the lease ending in sale, named in the product title and description. The bank also publishes a Code of Ethics on Repossession, a rare printed consumer safeguard, and flagged the industry-wide switch to the fixed rate reducing balance method under the Hire Purchase (Amendment) Act 2026, effective 1 June 2026. What it does not print is a rate grid, so bring Bank Islam's published 2.10% to 3.92% numbers to the negotiation. Our AITAB guide explains the contract in full.
BAE AG Personal Financing-i serves government employees: RM5,000 to RM350,000, the largest personal financing quantum printed among the six banks, repaid by Biro Angkasa salary deduction with no guarantor. Federal and state staff qualify from a RM1,500 gross monthly salary after one year of service. Takaful is encouraged rather than compulsory, which keeps the all-in cost honest. Again no printed rate; CIMB's 3.50% civil servant product is the benchmark to quote against, as we set out in our civil servant financing comparison.
Cards: fiqh and philanthropy over rebates
The Islamic card shelf runs four cards: Visa and MasterCard Platinum-i plus two Gold cards. The listing page names the full structure, Commodity Murabahah via Tawarruq, two sale and purchase contracts creating the credit line. The Visa Gold-i pays 1% cash back on online transactions. The distinctive product is the Gold MasterCard-i, which automatically donates 0.1% of total dining transactions to Yayasan Waqaf every month, an Islamic-native feature no other bank in this group prints. Rewards chasers will earn materially more from CIMB's PETRONAS card; see the full field in our Islamic credit cards guide.
The scorecard
| Product | Standout | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| CM ForU2Save Savings-i | 2.10% on first RM50,000, no conditions | Rate sheet dated January 2025 |
| Term Deposit-i | 2.00% from 13 months; rates dated 5 August 2026 | Short tenures trail CIMB and RHB |
| CM Current Account-i | Cash Line Facility-i option; honest labels | Introducer required |
| Home Equity Financing-i | Green preferential rates; FHMGP; redraw | No rate, margin or contract printed |
| AITAB Hire Purchase-i | Contract in the title; repossession ethics code | No rate grid |
| BAE AG Personal Financing-i | RM350,000 cap; RM1,500 income gate | No printed rate; civil servants only |
| Gold MasterCard-i | 0.1% dining spend auto-donated to Waqaf | Thin rewards next to CIMB and RHB |
Governance
Public Islamic publishes full biographies of its Shariah Committee on its corporate governance page: Dr. Shafaai bin Musa (Chairman since June 2022, trained at Al-Azhar, IIUM and Glasgow Caledonian), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Syed Musa Syed Jaafar Alhabshi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yasmin Hanani Mohd Safian, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohamad Zaharuddin Zakaria and Hj. Abdul Rahman Mohd Yusoff, appointed 1 April 2025. Named scholars with published biographies is the standard BNM's Shariah governance framework expects, and Public Islamic meets it in full.
Who should bank here
Public Islamic suits three groups. Savers with up to RM50,000 who want a real printed rate without behaviour conditions should open ForU2Save and be done. Medium-term depositors get the fastest printed path to 2.00%. And civil servants who need a large financing quantum at a low income gate have the RM350,000 BAE AG product. Borrowers who negotiate on printed numbers should look elsewhere first, because on mortgages, cars and cards this bank makes you read the PDS to find the price. That is the Public Bank way: the substance is usually solid, but nobody is going to sell it to you.
Frequently asked questions
Is Public Islamic Bank a separate bank from Public Bank?
Yes. Public Islamic Bank Berhad is a separately licensed Islamic bank under IFSA 2013 with its own Shariah Committee, its own products and its own PIDM membership. It operates through the Public Bank group's branch and ATM network, which is why the two feel like one institution at the counter. Deposits with Public Islamic are protected by PIDM up to RM250,000 separately from deposits with conventional Public Bank; our PIDM guide explains the separate-limit rule.
Why is the ForU2Save rate so much higher than the standard account?
The bank does not publish a rationale. What the printed table shows is a 2.10% rate on the first RM50,000 in ForU2Save against 0.00% to 0.05% on comparable balances in the standard CM Savings Account-i, both effective 16 January 2025. The practical lesson is to name the variant when you open the account, because the default product pays almost nothing.
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Does Public Islamic print its home financing rate anywhere?
Not on the crawlable product page as of 6 August 2026. The page prints bank-level reference rates (SBR 2.75%, BR 3.27%, BFR 6.47% as at 11 July 2025) and publishes the PDS in English and Bahasa Malaysia. The effective profit rate for your specific financing comes from the PDS and your offer letter. Get it in writing and compare it against Bank Islam's printed 3.55% before committing.