KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) expects the country’s inflation rate to continue to trend lower in line with slowing momentum of price increases.
According to governor Datuk Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour, the core inflation rate has continued to ease to 2.5% in August this year, in line with the lower global commodity prices and improving supply and demand conditions.
“We will continue to monitor potential risks to its outlook, arising mainly from changes to domestic policy on fuel subsidies,” he said at the International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing 2023 today.
He added that the Malaysian economy remains resilient, anchored by domestic-oriented activities.
“Labour market conditions, particularly employment and wages, continue to improve. This is an important factor that support households’ ability to spend. Meanwhile, investment by both the private and public sector remains forthcoming.
“These factors will continue to support the Malaysian economy in 2024. In addition, the economy would also benefit from a gradual recovery in the tech cycle and rebound in external demand,” said Ghaffour.
The central bank governor said BNM is assessing a number of additional policy enhancements on the handling of financial scams.
Ghaffour said they include strengthening the requirements for financial institutions to undertake more robust investigations, adopt stronger preventive controls and review the effectiveness of these mechanisms.
“We also plan to clarify the responsibilities of customers in protecting themselves and their rights if they fall victim to fraud. The bank will engage the industry in the next few months before we finalise these policies,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) information security committee chairman Derek Fernandez said it has the power to stop, remove content and to block sites suspected of being used for scams or to commit a criminal act.
He said the commission will liaise with government agencies such as the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) in carrying out measures after receiving requests from them.
On efforts by the commission, he said 2.4 billion suspicious calls were blocked from 2018 to Aug 31, 2023, while 4,051 phishing websites were blocked from 2020 to Aug 31, 2023.
In addition, 581 million unsolicited SMS were blocked from 2021 to Aug 31, 2023, and 237,999 lines including mobile and fixed lines that were affiliated with suspicious SMS were terminated from 2021 to Aug 31, 2023.
From 2021 to Aug 31, 2023, 581 million unsolicited SMS were blocked and 237,999 lines including mobile and fixed lines that were affiliated with suspicious SMS were terminated.
For the period May 12 to Aug 31, 2023, 17 million peer-to-peer SMS messages containing hyperlinks were prevented from reaching their intended recipients.
From 2020 until Aug 31, 2023, 29 websites were blocked based on request from PDRM. Furthermore, 7,754 accounts have been flagged for the attention of platform providers, including impersonation fake accounts used for fraudulent purposes.
“This is just a small fraction of the problem. The reality is the real problem is probably seven times the actual amount because most people don’t report and so that is the extent of the challenge,“ Fernandez said during a media briefing on the launch of #JanganKenaScam, a national scam awareness campaign initiated by banks under the ambit of the Association of Banks in Malaysia and the Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia.
