Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) will no longer tolerate ringgit transactions in the non-deliverable forward (NDF) market and its damaging influence over the onshore pricing of the local currency, said its governor Muhammad Ibrahim.
He said that the activities in the offshore market, in particular the ringgit NDF market, had brought on observable adverse impacts on the onshore market.
"The impact of the NDF market volatility has been clearly pervasive in the onshore market and several foreign exchange (FX) traders in the domestic market were observed to be looking towards the NDF market to provide cues in determining the opening market price for the ringgit.
"The sum effect of these behaviours is that we inadvertently imported the NDF volatility into the onshore market," he said in his opening remarks at the Financial Market Association Annual Dinner in Kuala Lumpur last night.
The offshore market, which is driven by speculative interest, lacks the onshore market's diverse spectrum of market participants and information.
Muhammad also said that onshore banks were reminded against quoting onshore ringgit opening price referencing to the offshore prices.
Markets should not price the ringgit excessively or out of sync with the underlying fundamentals.
"We have also reminded onshore banks to avoid dealing in FX with non-resident banks suspected of engaging in NDF speculative activities except for those that provide confirmation of their non-involvement in the offshore ringgit NDF market.
"This week has seen many noises surrounding these measures. There is no new policy on capital flows. There is no proxy capital control either. In fact, Malaysia's current account remains free with free mobility of inflows and outflows of capital for investments," he added.
Going forward, he envisaged that the Financial Markets Committee, which was formed early this year to formulate and propose strategies to take the financial market development forward, would work with the industry to come up with new strategies and ideas to deepen and support the development of Malaysia's onshore market.
- Bernama
