Bank Negara Malaysia imposes MYR 3.445m penalty on Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad for service disruption and sanctions screening breaches

Bank Negara Malaysia imposed an Administrative Monetary Penalty (AMP) totalling MYR 3,445,000 on Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad for non-compliance with the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, the Risk Management in Technology Policy Document (RMiT PD) and the Anti-Money Laundering, Countering Financing of Terrorism, and Targeted Financial Sanctions for Financial Institutions Policy Document. The MYR 1,745,000 component relates to prolonged service disruptions, where multiple unplanned downtimes between 1 June 2023 and 31 December 2024 breached the RMiT PD high-availability thresholds of cumulative unplanned downtime of not more than four hours on a rolling 12-month basis and a maximum tolerable downtime of 120 minutes per incident, with disruptions affecting e-banking channels, the debit card system and online payment transactions. The MYR 1,700,000 component relates to sanctions screening failures, including delays in screening non-customer beneficial owners against the Domestic List and United Nations Security Council Resolutions list, and failures to screen the entire customer database in a timely manner following 2022 and 2023 Federal Gazette publications, which delayed identification of three specified entities and delayed reporting in one case, with transactions facilitated before positive matches were identified. BIMB has taken remedial actions including strengthening recovery capabilities and IT infrastructure, and enhancing sanctions screening systems, procedures and training. The penalties were paid following AMP decisions imposed on 29 May 2025 (sanctions screening) and 30 June 2025 (service disruptions).