Bank Negara extends flexibility for banks to use MGS, MGII

Bank Negara Malaysia has extended the flexibility for banking institutions to use MGS and MGII to meet the Statutory Reserve Requirement (SRR) until Dec 31,2022.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia has extended the flexibility for banking institutions to use MGS and MGII to meet the Statutory Reserve Requirement (SRR) until Dec 31,2022.

In a statement issued on Wednesday it said this flexibility for them to use the Malaysian Government Securities and Malaysian Government Investment Issues -- previously announced on May 5 last year – is currently applicable until May 31, 2021.

The SRR ratio remains unchanged at 2%.

“The decision to extend this flexibility is part of Bank Negara Malaysia’s continuous efforts to ensure sufficient liquidity to support financial intermediation activity.

“Since March 2020, the reduction in the SRR ratio by 100 basis points and flexibility to recognise MGS and MGII as part of SRR compliance have released approximately RM46bil worth of liquidity into the banking system, ” ir said.

Bank Negara said the SRR is an instrument to manage liquidity and is not a signal on the stance of monetary policy.

The Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) is the sole indicator used to signal the stance of monetary policy, and is announced through the monetary policy statement released after the monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting.

At the meeting, the MPC kept the OPR unchanged at 1.75%.