In an interview with the magazine Euromoney, CIMB bank
chairperson Nazir Razak shares his views on the 1MDB scandal and being dragged
into the imbroglio.
Published in its September issue, the
article's writer noted how two days before the meeting with Nazir, a brother of
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, the United States Department of Justice filed
a civil suit in relation to alleged abuse of 1MDB funds.
"When you agree to an interview, you
don't imagine what's going to happen two days beforehand," Nazir had told
the writer, who claimed that the banker honoured the interview against the
advice of his communications advisers, "three of whom joined us in the
room with a barrage of notebooks and tape recorders".
Responding to a question on the impact of
the 1MDB scandal on Malaysia at an international level, Nazir conceded that it
has never been harder to represent Malaysia than it is now.
He described it as "quite
damaging."
"Investors today have a choice. They
have vast choice. And Malaysia, even with everything else being equal, has a
challenge, because we are a small economy, and we have strength but we also
have this weakness that we are relatively small.
"If I set up in Indonesia, I've got a
market of 200 million people. Malaysia's 10 percent of that.
"I've always maintained Malaysia has
to work harder, much harder than the bigger markets. And a situation like that…
when investors see something like the 1MDB fiasco, and don't understand it,
they are left to question whether Malaysia condones the weak governance
practices that were evident, and [they] have questions about the big
institutions. It makes it difficult for us to promote Malaysia," he said.
Responding to the revelation that linked
him to the 1MDB issue, which prompted the banker to go on leave pending CIMB's
internal probe, Nazir said he was upset to have found himself in that position.
'I knew I wasn't doing anything wrong'
"We have our own laws and regulations
and practices, so within that I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong," he
says. "But when the story came out in the WSJ, external observers were
wondering: what on Earth is this? So that's why I had to take the step to clear
my name.
"And the reason why this story comes
up is because of the questions around the legitimacy of the funds that I was
given, that's why it became a story. Without that, there's no story."
To a question, Nazir said he believed the
money he had helped channel for his brother was campaign donation.
"And that may not be a done thing in
all countries, but that happens in many countries in an election period.
"I'd say that I found it… it was
upsetting to be dragged into this whole 1MDB controversy.
"I'd never in my wildest dreams
thought that what I was asked to do had anything to do with 1MDB. So when the
furore came out and it got linked to 1MDB, of course it was very upsetting,
because I was determined that CIMB be nowhere near 1MDB," he said.
Though being cleared of any wrongdoing on
his part, Nazir, according to the article, suggested that from an international
perspective viewpoint, it does not look normal for a bank chairperson to
distribute US$7 million of contributions to political parties through his own
account at the behest of a sibling prime minister.
"Every time we deal with CIMB now,
this is going to be flagged by compliance and we will have to explain
why," the magazine quoted one international banker as saying.
Nazir was also questioned on how CIMB was
affected by his name being linked to 1MDB, to which, he replied: "There
are always incidents and challenges, and the key thing is how banks respond to
them.
"In
this instance it was very much a personal matter, and I dealt with it in that
way. It wasn’t so much about CIMB; it was my account that happens to be in
CIMB, as you would naturally expect. I would like to think we've kept CIMB very
much away from this whole thing."
In the Euromoney article
entitled, "CIMB's Nazir battling Malaysia’s demons", there is also a
Game of Thrones-inspired image of a Malay warrior in the middle of two armies.
Commenting on this in an Instagram
posting, the banker remarked: "Although flattering me with the
super-muscular appearance, the artist is not giving me much chance of survival,
in the middle of two fierce-battling forces! Oh well, so long as I think I did right
by Dad's legacy and kids are proud."
Read more: https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/356961#ixzz4LbrqCAVv
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