HE sits atop a fund that manages RM200 billion and the expectations of 10 million people. With returns to members that are steadily dwindling and in fact for last year, set to become the lowest declared since 1962, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) chief executive officer Datuk Azlan Zainol does not look as if he is carrying the weight of disappointment on his shoulder. 

Why should he? The fund's investment is governed by guidelines that over the years have changed little to keep up with the times. And where it has, that too has worked out poorly. Fresh, new avenues for investments seem altogether limited while the low interest rate regime and languishing market have all but pushed the fund to a corner.