4.1.1 the restructuring program
By April 1998 the pprogram’s improvements targeted at the loan classification and provisioning standards had been completed. In addition to a broad diagnostic review of the banking system in March 1998. The central bank grouped the banks into three categories: sound banks, those on a secondary watch list, and those on a primary watch list.
In July 1998, the Government announced a plan to bring about a consolidation of the financial industry covering 58 financial institutions (21 banks, 25 finance companies and 12 merchant banks) . It was hoped that the consolidation would improve the competitiveness of the domestic banking in dusty, while at the same time avoiding the potentially destabilizing consequences of a number of domestic banking institutions going bankrupt. During 1998,however , as the economy and loan quality deteriorated sharply, the finance company merger program was scalet back.
During summer 1998, an institutional framework was established to strengthen efforts to rehabilitate the commercial banking system by using public funds to asquire NPLs and re-capitalising commercial banks, while at the same time facilitating the restructuring of corporate debt. Danaharta, a public asset management company, was established in June 1998 to acquire NPLs, and to appoint special administrators who could take control and mange the assets of a borrower unable to pay its debts. Danamodal was established in August 1998, as a limited liability company owned by BNM, with objectives to inject new capital in undercapitalized banks and facilitate the rationalization of the system. A corporate Debt Restructuring Committee (CDRC) was also established to act an informal debtor/creditor broker to achieve debt restructuring as an alternative to companies filing for bankruptcy.
The reforms described above were complicated by attempts by the authorities to stimulate credit growth in the face of the economic downturn. While the authorities wished to use interest rates to stimulate credit, they were constrained by onshore/offshore interest-rate differentials. These differentials limited the scope for reducing one shore. The authorities, therefore, introduced additional measures in September 1998 aimed at eliminating the offshore ringgit market, fixing the exchange rate, and improving the conditions for increased bank lending. The measures included:
- Exchange controls measures o restrict international capital flows, which eliminated the offshore ringgit market, and prohibited non-residents from repatrianting portfolio capital held in Malaysia for a period of 12 months.
- The fixed of the exchange rate at RM 3.8:US$1.
- The reduction of the statutory reserve requirements to 4 per cent of eligible liabilities (from 10 per cent in February 1998 to 8 per cent in August).