KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia's central bank will not set the number of banks the country should have or force further mergers following the creation of 10 big banking groups, a report said Sunday.

Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Dr Zeti Akhtar Abdul Aziz said there was no target number for further mergers.

"Now there are no target numbers, no specific timeline for mergers. These will be driven by a competitive environment," Zeti was quoted as saying by the Edge newspaper following industry concern that there could be another round of banking consolidation.

54 into 10

The previous round of mergers in 2001 saw 54 banks and finance houses merged into 10 groups to strengthen the sector against international competition.

Zeti said Bank Negara had indicated that in the future, Malaysia would have three or four large banks that would provide the full range of products and services.

"Others are likely to be more specialised maybe in retail banking or in small- and medium-sized enterprises financing. So, we could still end up with 10 actually in our system...," she said. AFP