Too early to list priorities, says new Bank Negara governor

New Bank Negara governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said it is too early for her to talk about her priorities as head of the central bank.

“I have been away for nearly two years. I will need to go back and start my responsibilities in July and discuss with the staff on the current situation and what would be the priorities moving forward,” she said in a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Putrajaya today.

Nor Shamsiah was responding to a reporter’s question on what her priorities would be as the new governor.

Expressing her gratitude for being given this appointment, she said she accepted it with the utmost sense of honour and responsibility.

“I will endeavour to carry out the duties of governor of Bank Negara to the best of my abilities, together with the present team.

“Bank Negara will continue to focus on delivering its mandate of maintaining monetary and financial stability in the best interests of the nation,” she said.

Earlier in the same press conference, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng officially announced her appointment as the new governor.

Nor Shamsiah first joined the central bank in 1987 and rose to be the deputy governor in 2010. She left Bank Negara in November 2016 after her term ended.

“As deputy governor, Nor Shamsiah was responsible for banking, insurance and takaful supervision, financial intelligence and enforcement, talent management, finance and shared services of the central bank,” Lim said.

She recently served as an assistant director of the monetary and capital markets division of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he added.

Nor Shamsiah would be replacing Muhammad Ibrahim, who resigned from his position earlier this month. 

Muhammad had taken over as Bank Negara governor from Zeti on May 1, 2016 and was supposed to serve a five-year term.

His resignation came after he became entangled in the 1MDB scandal by overseeing Bank Negara's RM2.066 billion purchase of land from the government earlier this year.

The money was subsequently used by the then BN government to pay off 1MDB's debt.

Muhammad had denied facilitating the then government in the 1MDB matter, pointing out that he had no control over how the government would spend the proceeds from the land purchase. -Mkini