By Chester Tay / The Edge Financial Daily From The Edge Markets

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 26, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been urged to be more responsible in answering members of parliaments’ (MP) questions about 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) after the ministry of finance (MoF) sidestepped a question on the name of the new custodian bank for some US$940 million (RM3.91 billion) worth of 1MDB assets in Singapore.

Opposition MP for Petaling Jaya Utara Tony Pua said Najib’s reluctance to reveal the name of the new custodian bank will only induce more speculation. 1MDB owns the assets, which were last said to be in the form of fund units, via its wholly owned subsidiary, Brazen Sky Ltd. These were initially parked under BSI Bank Ltd’s Singapore branch, which had been closed down in May by the Singapore authorities for breaching anti-money laundering rules. The assets are the remainder of what had been redeemed from 1MDB’s investments in the Cayman Islands in January 2015.

“Until today, the ‘units’ that were kept in BSI Bank remain a mystery. Because even when 1MDB is in [a] cash-strapped position, to the extent that it had to sell assets important to the nation like power plants and Bandar Malaysia to foreign investors, [these] ‘units’ were not sold to bear 1MDB’s gigantic debt,” he told pressmen at the parliament lobby yesterday.

Pua, who had asked the MoF for the name of the new custodian bank last Thursday, was only told by the MoF via a written reply that Brazen Sky’s board of directors had certified that “an internationally licensed bank has been given the mandate to be the custodian bank” of the assets, to take over from BSI.

The MoF said, again citing Brazen Sky’s directors, that there has been no change in the value of the assets. Pua said the answer is unacceptable as the minister should validate the value of the assets, and not rely solely on the word of Brazen Sky’s directors.

Pua also recalled the last time Najib, who is also the prime minister, declined to reveal the previous fund manager of 1MDB’s investments in the Cayman Islands because it was an unlicensed one. Despite Najib’s insistence that the previous fund manager was licensed, Pua said the auditor-general had subsequently found out otherwise.

“It is clear from the lack of openness in the minister’s answer that there is something being hidden from Malaysians,” Pua charged.

For more on this story go to: http://www.theedgemarkets.com/my/article/najib-urged-be-more-responsible-answering-questions-1mdb

IMAGE: From link below

See also iNews Cayman related stories with links at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/two-more-former-bsi-senior-bankers-charged-in-singapore-court-in-1mdb-probe/