KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has submitted its report on its investigation into 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to newly-appointed Attorney-General (AG) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali earlier this week.

“We conducted a formal investigation [into 1MDB] by taking statements from various people involved ... that investigation was long-drawn because it was a complex process and that’s now been completed,” said the central bank’s governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz yesterday.

She added that recommendations for the appropriate enforcement action were also provided to the AG.

Zeti, however, declined to reveal the probe’s findings and BNM’s recommendations on the matter due to regulatory prohibition.

“I want to reiterate that the bank is prohibited by law from publicly discussing any details of the investigation. If we are called by the Public Accounts Committee, then that is the only other avenue that the bank will be able to respond to questions on this investigation,” she said.

Zeti added that BNM had already started informal investigation into 1MDB several years ago, as the company was a concern as it was a highly-leveraged entity.

“We monitored them (1MDB) and engaged with them for a few years actually, and we wrote reports on them and submitted the reports [to the relevant persons or authorities],” she said.

BNM’s financial stability committee looks into risks that entities pose to the financial system, among others.

BNM was previously part of a special task force set up to investigate 1MDB. The task force, headed by former AG Tan Sri Gani Patail, also included the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police.

However, the MACC last week said the task force had been disbanded, with the three main agencies now ordered to work independently.

When asked whether BNM was conducting a separate probe into allegations that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) was transferred to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s accounts, Zeti said: “That is not under our purview. It is under the other enforcement agencies.”

She also said she was unaware of any arrangement for a new task force, following the unit’s dissolution.

Zeti said while seven of its officers were recently questioned by police regarding the purported leakage of information related to the 1MDB probe, she had yet to hear from the police. “BNM will always give cooperation to the other law enforcement agencies.”

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 14, 2015.