In a candid email to his staff that was leaked, he gave the assurance that everything was done in the right manner, with proper governance, accountability and compliance with all relevant laws.

He said when he took office in May 2016, he vowed to execute the responsibility of the governor with the highest level of professionalism, integrity and honour.

“Over the past few weeks, there have been serious questions raised if I have fallen short of this standard and put at risk public confidence in the bank.

“As a central bank, we are only as effective as the trust and confidence that the people of Malaysia and its leaders place in us, ” he said in the email.

He said he was prepared to relinquish his post if he no longer had the trust and support of the public.

“I cannot in good conscience continue if it affects the bank’s image and reputation,” he said, adding that the central bank was judged by the decisions it made.

He cited the purchase of the parcel of land known as Lot 41, which had attracted attention when it was revealed that the land was acquired at RM850 per square foot.

He said the perception was that the purchase of the land was made to intentionally aid and abet the misappropriation of public funds pertaining to the corruption and scandal surrounding 1MDB.

“This is totally untrue. Bank Negara Malaysia will never be party to any such activities that would betray the public trust in us.

“We abhor any semblance of corruption and abuse of power,” he wrote.

Muhammad said the central bank was not aware or have any control over the proceeds of the land transaction that was said to have been used to settle 1MDB’s obligations.

“It is simply unthinkable for us to be associated with such a controversial entity mired with accusations of fraud and mismanagement.

“It is not in our nature to do such things. We even took enforcement action against them earlier,” he said.

The 1MDB scandal, Muhammad said, had cost the country dearly and as a Malaysian he was deeply angered, distressed and outraged over the matter.

“This is indeed a matter of significant public focus and I can understand why any association with the scandal, unintended or otherwise, is invariably met with a strong sense of public outrage.”

Due to that, he said, his priority now was for Bank Negara to move forward and continue to focus on delivering its mandates to serve the people.

The Lot 41 land transaction

Muhammad said the purchase of Lot 41 land was not the first time BNM had done such a transaction.

“As many of you would know, we have over the years, acquired several pieces of land throughout the country to enable the discharge of our mandates.

“Our own headquarters presently were built on three separate land acquisitions made in the 1950s and 1980s,” he said.

“The Bukit Perdana land, acquired in 2013 at the price of RM1,235 per square foot, was also based on an independent professional valuer, upon which the ongoing construction of the Asian School of Business and the Financial Industry Training Centre are being done, are also the nearest examples,” he said.

“We have also always wanted to create greater synergies between our numerous affiliated institutions and ensure talent development for the financial sector workforce,” he said in the email.

With this objective in mind, he explained that BNM indicated its interest as early as September of 2016.

“We initiated the purchase of the land a year later when we knew that there was an interest by the government then to sell this land.

“We believe that it was an excellent opportunity to secure an asset on fair terms that will be central to sustain our future long-term growth.

“We have a vision for a Financial Education Hub that will also host among others, a global Islamic finance university, a Shariah academy and research centre, a financial services library, innovation labs, a cybersecurity operations centre and an integrated security command centre.”

Muhammad said the central bank even recommended to the government for the sale to be best done by way of a public tender.

“We also chose to publish a press release in January 2018 to inform the public of the purchase in our effort to be transparent.”

He said BNM knew that it needed to pass the test of public scrutiny in everything it did to maintain its reputation and confidence of the public.

Muhammad reminded his staff that the institution was bigger than any individual and said he believed that the best days were ahead of them.

“Let us draw courage, lessons and strength from this,” he added.