The central bank has been silent on the RM2.6 billion donation into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal bank accounts because it is beyond its jurisdiction, said Bank Negara deputy governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus.

She said there are 14 agencies including Bank Negara that can use the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Amla) to facilitate investigations.

However, these agencies can only use the act to conduct investigations that are within their jurisdiction, Nor Shamsiah ( photo ) added.

“If the underlying offence is corruption, the appropriate body that would investigate that transaction would be the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

“(For) Bank Negara, we only investigate offences against laws that we administer, and the laws that we administer are the Financial Services Act 2013, and the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013,” she said in Putrajaya today.

Nor Shamsiah added that under Amla, the central bank is the competent authority to disseminate financial information that it receives to relevant authorities, including suspicious transaction reports from banks.

She was speaking at a plenary session at the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC), where the moderator Michael Peel asked her why Bank Negara had been silent on the alleged RM2.6 billion transaction.

The Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz ( photo ) had previously said that all relevant information regarding the transaction has already been given to the relevant enforcement agencies, whether it had come from financial institutions or other central banks.

However, she declined to elaborate saying that she is prohibited by law to do so.