KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 – The new chief executive officer (CEO) of Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) to replace Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar will be announced this month, says Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Abdul Aziz.
“There would be approval and screening processes because we want to ensure that the CEO, especially for such a large bank, passes them.
“The agents are doing them and are very nearly being completed so the name will be announced soon,” she told reporters after the introduction of a new iconic brand, ‘Malaysia’s Islamic Finance Marketplace’, here today.
She said the candidate has been identified and the new CEO of the largest banking group in Malaysia will be announced this month.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak introduced the new iconic bran.
Also present was Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah.
Meanwhile, Zeti said the government and BNM were addressing concerns raised by Fitch Ratings on Malaysia’s public savings and structural budget.
“We will set out to increase our resilience and to better enhance our potentials to sustain our growth,” she said.
The rating agency has also revised Malaysia’s sovereign credit rating outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ while affirming Malaysia’s long-term foreign and local currency at ‘A-‘ and ‘A’, respectively.
On Najib’s announcement that the government will unveil details on policy options to strengthen the country’s fiscal and macro positions in the coming budget, Zeti said Malaysia still has the time to do it but it was now more urgent because the global environment has become more challenging.
“It is important for us to reduce our vulnerabilities and one of the areas of course is in fiscal area. Malaysia has the capacity and capability to address it in a gradual and sequenced manner,” she said.
Zeti said the recovery that was expected from the major economies has not strengthened and going forward it was likely that it would continue to remain modest.
– BERNAMA
