BNM Imposes Penalties Totalling RM35,000 On Merchantrade Asia, JAGS Money

KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 (Bernama) -- Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) imposed a total of RM35,000 in administrative monetary penalties (AMP) on Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd and JAGS Money Sdn Bhd.

In a statement today, the central bank said that an AMP of RM29,000 was imposed on Merchantrade Asia and RM6,000 on JAGS Money due to non-compliance with the Money Services Business Act 2011.

“The non-compliances are due to Merchantrade Asia’s oversight of sanctions screening procedures, and gaps in updating their sanctions database upon the publication of the Domestic List,” BNM said.

Merchantrade Asia, as a reporting institution, is required to conduct sanctions screening on existing, potential or new customers against the Domestic List and United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) List as part of the customer due diligence and ongoing due diligence processes.

It also has to ascertain that potential matches with the UNSCR List or Domestic List are true matches to avoid false positives.

“In response, Merchantrade has since strengthened its processes by subscribing to a commercial database service to ensure it receives updates on the sanctions list in a timely manner, and that staff and agents are provided with regular on-the-job training to improve compliance,” BNM said.

Meanwhile, JAGS Money’s non-compliances resulted from failure to promptly update the sanctions database upon the publication of the Domestic List and failure to conduct sanctions screening on new customers against the Domestic List.

“JAGS paid a total of RM6,000 for the AMP imposed by BNM on March 17, 2025,” the central bank said.

-- BERNAMA