The Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM; ; Jawi: ) is the Malaysian central bank. Established on 26 January 1959 as the Central Bank of Malaya (Bank Negara Tanah Melayu), its main purpose is to issue currency, act as the banker and advisor to the government of Malaysia, and regulate the country's financial institutions, credit system, and monetary policy. Its headquarters is located in Kuala Lumpur. The central bank is the only institution permitted to issue the Malaysian ringgit into circulation.
Powers of the Bank
The Central Bank is empowered through enactment of legislation by the Parliament of Malaysia. New legislation are created and current legislation is amended to reflect the needs of the time and future.
Development Financial Institutions Act 2002
Promotes the development of effective and efficient development financial institutions. This act repealed the Central Bank of Malaysia Act 1958.
Money Services Business Act 2011
Provides for regulation of money services business industry which consists of remittance, wholesale currency and currency exchange businesses. This act repealed Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989, Insurance Act 1996 (though sections 144, 147(4), 147(5), 150, 151 and 224 of the Insurance Act 1996 continue to remain in full force and effect by virtue of section 275 of FSA 2013), Payment Systems Act 2003 and Exchange Control Act.
A new building for the Financial Services and Resources Center (FSRC) was constructed in 2004 to house the FSRC, SEACEN, IFSB and the FMAG (the museum arm of BNM). Located along Jalan Dato Onn, the building was designed by renowned Malaysian architect firm, Hijjas Kasturi Associates. Officially declared opened in August 2011, the building is now known as Sasana Kijang.
History
In 1837 the Indian rupee was made the sole official currency in the Straits Settlements, but in 1867 silver dollars were again legal tender. In 1903 the Straits dollar, pegged at two shillings and fourpence (2s. 4d.), was introduced by the Board of Commissioners of Currency for the Straits Settlements and private banks were prevented from issuing notes. Since then, there were two lapses in the continuity of the currency, first by the Japanese occupation (1942–1945), and again by the devaluation of the Pound Sterling in 1967 when notes of the Board of Commissioners of Currency, Malaya and British Borneo lost 15% of their value.
On 12 June 1967, the Malaysian dollar, issued by the new central bank, Central Bank of Malaysia, replaced the Malaya and British Borneo dollar at par. The new currency retained all denominations of its predecessor except the $10,000 denomination, and also brought over the colour schemes of the old dollar.
In 1985, following the "Plaza meeting" of G-5 finance ministers in New York City, the US dollar fell sharply causing major losses in Central Bank's dollar reserves. The bank responded by starting a program of aggressive speculative trading to make up these losses. Jaffar Hussein, the Central Bank Governor at the time, referred to this strategy as "honest-to-God trading" in a December 1988 speech in New Delhi.
In the late 1980s, Central Bank, under Governor Jaffar Hussein, was a major player in the forex market. Its activities caught the attention of many; initially, Asian markets came to realise the influence the Central Bank had on the direction of forex market. Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve's chairman, later realised BNM's massive speculation activities and requested the Malaysian central bank to cease those activities.
On 21 September 1990, BNM sold between $500 million to $1 billion worth of pound sterling in a short period of time, driving the pound down 4 cents to the dollar. The Central Bank lost an additional $2.2 billion in speculative trading a year later. By 1994, the bank became technically insolvent and was bailed out by the Malaysian Finance Ministry.
{|class="wikitable"
|+Central Bank Foreign Exchange Reserves (Source: Central Bank, rounded to the nearest billion USD)
|-
| 31 December 2004 || US$66 billion
|-
| 31 July 2005 || US$78 billion
|-
| 31 December 2007 || US$101 billion
|-
| 31 March 2008 || US$120 billion
|-
|31 December 2010
|US$107 billion
|-
|31 December 2012
|US$140 billion
|-
|31 December 2014
|US$116 billion
|-
|30 December 2016
|US$95 billion
|-
|31 December 2018
|US$101 billion
|-
|31 December 2019
|US$104 billion
|-
|31 December 2020
|US$108 billion
|-
|31 December 2021
|US$117 billion
|-
|30 December 2022
|US$115 billion
|-
|29 December 2023
|US$114 billion
|-
|31 December 2024
|US$116 billion
|-
|31 December 2025
|US$126 billion
|}
Project Nexus
The Bank for International Settlements signed an agreement with Central Bank of Malaysia, Bank of Thailand, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Reserve Bank of India on 30 June 2024 as founding member of Project Nexus, a multilateral international initiative to enable retail cross-border payments. Bank Indonesia involved as a special observer. The platform, which is expected to go live by 2026, will interlink domestic fast payment systems of the member countries.
See also
- Bank Negara Monetary Notes
- International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance
- Real-time gross settlement
- List of central banks
- List of financial supervisory authorities by country
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
- Islamic Banking Law
- [http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=fs_mfs&pg=fs_mfs_bank]