PETALING JAYA: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has imposed penalties on two financial institutions and two firms for failures to comply with requirements against money laundering and terrorism financing.
BNM said the institutions involved were MBSB Bank Bhd, Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia Bhd (SME Bank), Boardroom Corporate Services Sdn Bhd and Ilham Secretarial Services.
The central bank imposed a RM560,000 administrative monetary penalty (AMP) on MBSB Bank for failing to submit suspicious transaction reports (STR) despite transactions raising internal red flags.
“As a reporting institution (RI), MBSB Bank is required to submit reports to BNM when a transaction or attempted transaction fits its established red flags for suspicious transactions.
“This mitigates the risk of RIs being used as channels for money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF), and other serious criminal activities,” Bernama reported BNM as saying.
MBSB Bank paid the AMP on Dec 3, 2025.
BNM said it imposed an AMP of RM460,000 on SME Bank for failure to promptly submit an STR. SME Bank also paid the penalty on Dec 3.
BNM imposed a compound of RM46,000 on Boardroom Corporate Services for failing to promptly submit an STR and for failing to conduct enhanced customer due diligence (ECDD).
“RIs are also required to conduct ECDD on their customers when ML/TF risks are assessed to be higher or when nominee services are provided,” said the central bank, adding that Boardroom paid the compound on Dec 16.
BNM also imposed a compound of RM8,625 on Ilham Secretarial Services for failure to promptly submit an STR, and the company paid the compound on Dec 15.
