Treasury secretary-general Irwan Serigar Abdullah has again denied that he had been offered the post of Bank Negara Malaysia governor as earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

“His majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong never signed my appointment as governor as is alleged,” said Irwan in a statement yesterday, reported Free Malaysia Today (FMT).

He called WSJ's claims "outright lies with absolutely no basis".

“I was never offered the post of governor of Bank Negara, as both WSJ and Sarawak Report have repeatedly claimed,” he said.

WSJ, which broke the news on March 11, said Irwan, who sits in the 1MDB advisory board, was set to become the new head of the central bank.

"Irwan is expected to be named as the new central bank head by the government in the coming week, a cabinet minister and a senior commercial banker said," reported WSJ.

With Bank Negara formally announcing its deputy governor Muhammad Ibrahim will succeed Zeti Akhtar Aziz as the new governor, the US financial daily faced a barrage of attacks as having lied in their reports.

WSJ publisher Dow Jones however said it stands by its report and claimed the government had made a U-turn on its decision to appoint Irwan, out of pressure.