By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 - Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz announced today that the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has approved the issuance of a commercial bank license to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC).
ICBC is the largest commercial bank in the republic.
“This licence follows a bilateral arrangement entered between China Banking Regulatory Commission and Bank Negara Malaysia, and between the Government of Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China in the early part of the year.
“This license is separate from the liberalisation initiative that was announced on 27 April 2009,” she explained during a press conference in Bank Negara here.
Zeti confirmed that this would be the first license approved under a bilateral agreement.
“Pre-determined criteria applied for such a bilateral arrangements include the level of trade and investment linkages, the extent of existing participation of the country in the Malaysian financial sector and value add it would contribute to the overall development of the Malaysian system and the economy,” she said.
Malaysia and China had agreed to sign a total of five MoUs during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s recent visit to the country.
The first MoU was between Bank Negara and the China Banking Regulatory Commission. This is a follow-up of a joint action plan between Malaysia and China which was originally signed on June 3.
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