Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) has called into question a claim that it provided US$7.504 billion (RM30.830 billion) in loans to companies that threaten the environment with deforestation.

Online initiative Forests and Finance previously made the claim and ranked the Malaysian bank the seventh biggest creditor of what it deemed “forest-risk companies”.

Between 2016 and 2020, the website alleged that the bank’s top clients...