Bank Negara chief: Forex scandal was a long time ago but we'll help

Bank Negara governor Muhammad Ibrahim said the forex scandal happened a long time ago and even he was only a student at that time.

He said this in reference to the heavy losses incurred by the central bank due to foreign exchange trading in the early 1990s.

"Just to give you a sense of perspective, that happened about 25 years ago. I was still in school, my deputy was pursuing his PhD. (Assistant Governor) Jessica (Chew) was still (pursuing) her degree," he told a press conference today.

He added that none of the Bank Negara senior officials who attended the press conference today, were with the central bank when the incident occurred.

"We will do our level best to help, but if you ask us what actually transpired during that time, we can only tell you (what we know) based on the documents that we have. That's all," he said.

He said the cabinet appointed special task force on Bank Negara's forex losses has met his staff.

"The task force will call our team from time to time. In fact the first interaction was last week," he said.

He noted the task force was given three months to compile a report on the matter.

Muhammad, 57, was appointed governor in May 2016.

The task force is also aimed at finding out what had really happened, how much "actual" losses were incurred, whether there was any financial mismanagement and whether there were any attempts by certain parties to cover up the matter.

The controversial losses, which occurred almost three decades ago, was played up after Dr Mahathir Mohamad sought to unite the opposition in a bid to oust Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Meanwhile, Muhammad said the 2016 BNM annual report did not include the 1MDB fiasco.

He was asked if the 1MDB scandal, which had been discussed extensively in the country, was included in the report, together with the BNM's following proposal and lessons learned in the incident.- Mkini