The Boss says.....

What (i thought) the boss said:

1. Growth and the Economy

• Growth in Malaysia will be sluggish for the next few quarters, contradictory to whatever the mainstream media is reporting.
  
• Malaysia is taking a "preventive and preemptive measures" by restructuring 'bad' debts by banks, which most often referred to as bailouts.
• There is active monitoring by the Bank's regulating body and Malaysia should not be hit as hard as those Americans and Europeans.
  
• She however, remain defiant that FDI flow into the country has not decreased over the years.
• The ringgit will remain strong but she did not explain the multi-billion losses in reserve over the last 6 months.
• It is interesting times for the financial sector, so read the newspapers more often =)

2. Politics and the Economy

• The Bank has been playing an NAP role over the years and this will not be different even if there's a change in administration.
• Senior officers have been able to get things around due to their "dinosaur" seniority but once this generation leaves, she implied that she will be proposing the formation of an independent regulatory body (which i believe will be pushed somewhere early next year before Badawi retires for good under the pretext of reform)
• The Boss claimed that she advised the PM to not increase the oil prices so drastically early this year, but the effort was futile (as we all know), emphasizing that such plan has to be done in a gradual manner as to avoid artificial inflation.
  

3. Interest rate and the reasoning behind MOP's decision.

• The overnight lending rate or most commonly referred to as the interest rate will not be revised down or up.
• The Bank will not succumb to the pressure by its European and American peers to raise the interest rate to curb inflation (that is ballooning) or to lower it in the wake of impending recession (which our friendly neighbor has officially declared a few weeks ago).
• The boss reasoned out that there was no justification to have a revision because the inflation is artificial (due to the sudden increased in oil prices) whereas a lower rate will no doubt help growth now, but monetary policies are meant for the long run. The Bank believes that the current rate will reflect the country's economic climate once things are less volatile.

4. The Maybank-Indonesia Bank Bt. Fiasco

• The decision to acquire the Indonesian bank was made after many revisions.
  
• Yes, she admitted that the money paid does not correspond with the worth of the bank now because Merrill and Lehman fell the very next day after the takeover was done but that was due to bad luck.
  
• She, however, holds firm that the analysis done by the Bank leading up to the acquisition was accurate and reasonable at that point of time.
• There were many revisions done before the deal was completed because of the changes and incoherent acquisition regulations by the Indonesia's authorities and not due to the negotiations on the price that were to be paid by Maybank.

5. The Bank's HR, students and scholars.

• The bank would like to, ostensibly, have students who are interested in central banking to consider a stint at the Bank.
• The boss, in her usual manner, was composed (thus i'm not sure whether she expressed her disappointment or disapproval or was surprised or any emotions for that matter although students who raised the issue were rather gung-ho about it) that there were claims on HR inefficiencies in dealing with internship requests and emails, locating scholars in the US for the function, and the lack of guidance, direction and action during the internship stints.
  
• On the issue of scholars pursuing finance bound to the US (where problems are abundant for those who are in the know), she refuted the idea of awarding "major-less" agreements and reiterated that scholarships are given based on the needs of department (and i totally agree with that statement. Those applying should know what they are getting into. Besides, i thought the bank was rather accommodating to "major-changers")
  
• The other issue that was brought up was the Bank's (and i think Malaysians in general) appreciation of degrees related to international relations, psychology or other humanities studies. I'm not really sure what her reaction was, but what i can remember is that the boss side-tracked and said something along the lines of departmental needs.

That basically sums up the conversations we had with the boss over lunch, I probably missed out a lot of other details since i weren't paying attention most of the time. oOoOoOoOooo well...




This is an update from the previous post:

The Boss and I @ Boston..........