UMNO Youth has urged the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the allegations made by the former assistant governor of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid about losses in forex trading during the early 1990s.

Its vice chief Khairul Azwan Harun said this was necessary to determine if these losses caused the central bank to go bankrupt and if there were efforts by certain parties to cover up the matter.

"This matter arose when it was brought up by the former assistant governor (Datuk Abdul Murad) recently that Bank Negara suffered huge losses and there was a cover-up.

"UMNO Youth believes that setting up the RCI will reveal what Datuk Abdul Murad said and answer all questions about the losses," he said in a press conference here Monday.

Recently, Abdul Murad was reported to have said that the central bank suffered losses amounting to US$10 billion in foreign exchange trading in the early 90s.

- BERNAMA