Merger of Malaysian banks: selecting appropriate partners

The Malaysian government is rushing banks to merge. The Central Bank has decided that there must be only 10 banks instead of a current total of 20. As a result, the local banks were being forced to merge with other banks. The problem lies in the non‐existence of a systematic means of identifying potential merger partner(s). This study thus, proposes to use the concept of the Transportation Algorithm to select potential merger partners for Malaysian banks, which would maximize the net worth of the merged entity. The methodology employed in this paper may not yield the best merger partner(s) but it should at least narrow down the choices to a select few where together with other rigorous financial, technical, strategic and even qualitative analysis may be used to determine the ultimate merger partner(s).