Muhammad’s career spans 32 years in central bank

AT Bank Negara’s quarterly briefings, he sits unobtrusively on the immediate right of governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz. Most will recognise him from his distinctive mop of white hair. Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim (pic), 56, is the most senior among the central bank’s three deputy governors.

A career central banker, he has been with Bank Negara since April 1984, and next month will mark his 32nd anniversary with the central bank. Muhammad has worked his way through the central bank’s various departments and units in the last three decades.

Appointed deputy governor in June 2010, he has served in the areas of bank regulation and supervision, strategic planning, payment systems, insurance, offshore banking and treasury and financial markets. He is a member of the central bank’s crucial monetary policy and financial stability committees.

An accountant by training, he has a graduate degree from Harvard University, a post-graduate diploma in Islamic banking and finance from International Islamic University Malaysia, and completed an advanced management programme with the Harvard Business School of Harvard University in 2010.

He serves on the boards of Bank Negara, Petroliam Nasional Bhd, Retirement Fund Inc and the Finance Accreditation Agency. He is a trustee of the Tun Ismail Ali Chair Council, an endowed chair of Universiti Malaya’s faculty of economics and administration, as well as a council member of the Malaysian Bankers Institute, an associate fellow of the Institute of Bankers Malaysia and a trustee of the National Trust Fund.

Muhammad has also served as managing director of Danamodal Nasional Bhd, a bank recapitalisation agency set up at the height of the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis to recapitalise, revitalise and restructure banks affected by the panic that ensued as the economy experienced bankruptcies and funds flowed out of the country.

He was a council member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants, a former commissioner of the Securities Commission and the former chairman of the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics, a forum for central bank officials set up by the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements.

An avid fan of the arts, the father of two boys and a girl also enjoys reading. People who have been to his office on the 19th floor of one of Bank Negara’s two gray blocks, will see a room scattered with paintings, books and memorabilia collected from travels.