KUALA LUMPUR: Banks will not be allowed to take arbitrary action against entrepreneurs who apply for financing, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister assured businesses that the issue had already been clarified after a meeting with bank managers at Bank Negara a few months ago.
“While private banks manage themselves, Bank Negara’s role remains to regulate and ensure their compliance with key policies. As such, Bank Negara will guarantee that private banks will not take actions arbitrarily," he told the Dewan Rakyat during Prime Minister's Question Time on Tuesday (July 7).
However, he added that the government cannot prevent such action in cases of serious default that violate normal regulations.
Anwar was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan (Perikatan Nasional-Kota Bharu) who wanted to know the guarantee of the government that micro-entrepreneurs, when facing short-term capital issues, would not be subjected to arbitrary action such as the termination of loans by financing banks.
Takiyuddin also asked what action the government would take to allow prospective borrowers more freedom in selecting which business sectors and foreign countries to invest in.
To this, Anwar said the difficulty for local businesses to deal with certain foreign countries, like Iran and Russia, was due to unclear regulations and external pressure from the United States in terms of sanctions.
He said he has since successfully negotiated with the two countries on facilitating payment management and increasing trade between the nations.
“Issues related to sanctions and oil with Russia have now been resolved and similarly, we have decided to permit and approved transaction dealings with Iran," he said.
