Act 731 to be fine-tuned to monitor illegal remittance activities

KUALA LUMPUR: The Finance Ministry is in the process of fine-tuning the Money Services Business Act 2011 (Act 731) to increase monitoring of and prevent illegal remittance activities, said Deputy Finance Minister II Yamani Hafez Musa.

He said the move would ensure more efficient and punitive action against remittance activities by illegal or registered remittance service providers.

"As of end-December 2021, a total of 42 non-bank remittance service providers have been licensed under Act 731; providing their services through 1,410 premises nationwide as well as online," he said during the question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said this in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali (PAS-Kuala Nerus) on the government's monitoring of remittance activities that were undeclared or not made via authorised remittance service providers.

Yamani Hafez said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had increased its surveillance against illegal remittance service providers as well as improved monitoring capabilities using data analysis to identify risks in the industry and detect suspicious transactions.

"As a regulatory measure, BNM has also set a transaction limit for remittances by an individual to not exceed RM50,000 per day.

"In addition, the remittance service providers are also required to submit transaction statistics periodically to BNM," he said.

-- BERNAMA