GOOGLE'S FOREX GLITCHES CAN HAVE DETRIMENTAL IMPACT

By M. Saraswathi

KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 (Bernama) -- Google’s foreign exchange (forex) rate glitch, which displayed erroneous US dollar/ringgit quotes on March 15, is indeed a cause for concern.

This was the second time a mistake was made within a brief window of 40 days, which if left unchecked can adversely affect sentiment and cause financial losses, although Google Malaysia has since issued an apology on X (formerly known as Twitter).

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The first glitch on Feb 6 involved the publication of a grossly erroneous US dollar/ringgit exchange rate of RM6.24, while last Friday’s glitch showed an exchange rate of RM4.98. 

In actuality, the ringgit traded between RM4.68 and RM4.70 versus the greenback last week.

Google Finance provides one-day, five-day, one-month, six-month, year-to-date, one-year, five-year and maximum charts on its currency exchange page. The glitch in March only appeared in Google Finance’s five-day chart and was not reflected in the other charts.

Despite Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the government calling it out, the glitch remained for the next 24 hours.

It should be noted that Malaysia was not the first country to experience this, with similar incidents in past years involving Ghana, Pakistan, Morocco and Nigeria, affecting the exchange rates between the dollar and their respective local currencies. These incidents were widely reported.

Exchange rate information is crucial for an array of financial decisions, including but not limited to currency exchange, international trade, investment decisions, and other forex-related decisions. 

While the countries affected by the glitches do not publish monetary losses directly in public forums or major news outlets, the potential for such losses exists.

The lack of widely reported incidents also suggests that either such glitches are infrequent and quickly corrected or that the impact has been minimal because of cross-verification practices.

However, the absence of publicised reports does not entirely rule out the occurrence of losses, as affected parties may resolve such issues privately or through customer service channels without resorting to public forums or legal action.

Even if there were no actual financial losses, the frenzy caused by such glitches and the adverse impact on the respectively countries in terms of perception and stability were undoubtedly detrimental and uncalled for.

Hence, as a reputable search engine, Google should exercise caution in getting verified exchange rates from central banks and financial institutions rather than quotes originating from websites.

When a similar glitch happened to Morocco’s dirham last year, its central bank, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM), was forced to come forward and deny speculation that the country’s currency had lost around 70 per cent of its value as the incident reportedly created a nationwide panic among its netizens.

Google’s disclaimer on currency exchange rates states: “Google cannot guarantee the accuracy of the exchange rates displayed. You should confirm current rates before making any transactions that could be affected by changes in the exchange rates.”

Financial professionals often cross-reference exchange rates from multiple sources before executing significant transactions in order to mitigate the risk of loss due to glitches like these.

Similarly, reputable financial institutions and services also have safeguards and checks to prevent reliance on inaccurate data. However, such services could be out of reach for ordinary citizens, precipitating panic and frenzy with detrimental effects. 

While real financial losses could have been mitigated or minimised via existing mechanisms, social media platforms such as TikTok, X, Facebook and other widely used platforms enable unscrupulous parties to misuse such information to cast aspersion on government policies and initiatives.

Coupled with the rise of artificial intelligence-driven services such as ChatGPT from OpenAI, it is unfortunate that the risk of misinformation and unreliable projections will only increase in frequency.

The advice for ordinary citizens is that when faced with suspicious information on exchange rates, they should refer to BNM’s website to confirm the validity of the information that they have received.

-- BERNAMA