Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz defended the central bank's probe into 1MDB, saying the bank acted from an ‘administrative perspective’.

"I do not want to judge the attorney-general (Mohamed Apandi Ali) in the decision he has made," Zeti said at a press conference at the central bank today.

In a statement on Oct 15, the Attorney-General’s Chambers said it had closed BNM’s investigation into 1MDB because the state-owned firm cannot be faulted for any alleged offence investigated by BNM.

Zeti said Apandi made the decision from a criminal perspective, whereas Bank Negara acted from an administrative perspective when it granted the approval for 1MDB to invest abroad.

She was asked if the central bank had made a mistake in its investigation into 1MDB, in light of Apandi’s statement.

The attorney-general had also said 1MDB could not be faulted for the alleged offence if BankNegara did not seek the clarifications it needed.

Zeti said the central bank took into consideration 1MDB’s information before it granted the firm the permission to invest overseas.

She added that it had to follow procedures in granting the permission for overseas investment exceeding RM100 million.

Apandi had also claimed that since the central bank did not request for certain or specific information, 1MDB cannot be faulted as it has filled up the form as required and responded to the queries made.

“We do not rely on the form being filled up; we rely on written information from the organisation to invest abroad,” Zeti retorted.

Bank Negara had also followed up on the status of investment with the firm, she said, rebutting Apandi’s claim that the central bank only took less than three days to approve 1MDB's investment overseas.

“At the point of approval, we do not end all the engagement with them; we also requested for the updated status of their investment abroad,” she said.

On this note, she said Bank Negara had engaged with 1MDB directly, at least on five separate ocassions.

Asked whether the central bank had made any mistake in its investigation into 1MDB, Zeti said firmly," No."

She added that Bank Negara's decision to revoke the permissions granted to 1MDB was based on its findings that these were obtained by the sovereign fund based on inaccurate or incomplete disclosure of material information relevant to the decision.