PUTRAJAYA: There were two different treatments to the recording of Bank Negara’s foreign exchange (forex) trading between the years of 1989 and 1993. Ishak Ismail, whose last post in the central bank was as accounts manager in the Accounts Department, before leaving in 1995, said this was decided by the Banking Department. “There were two treatments for forex trading that were decided by the Banking Department. If the Banking Department classified it as ‘trading’ then it will be recorded in the profit and loss (margins) of Bank Negara,” he said during today’s proceedings of the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the 1990s Bank Negara forex losses. To this, Ishak replied that as the central bank, Bank Negara had the liberty to move beyond common accounting practices as long as it was legal and was beneficial towards the health of the country’s financial stability.

Source: New Strait Times August 29, 2017 15:22 UTC