☕️ BNM: Personal loans above RM100k need financial education course by 2027

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul shared that ASEAN-China trade reached a total of USD772.2 bil (RM3.2 tril) in 2024, with ASEAN’s member nations fully committed to strengthening ties. China remains ASEAN’s largest trading partner amid an increasingly complex global environment. This complexity, according to the minister, is why ASEAN and China have to continue upholding principles of openness, inclusivity, and multilateralism. He said these principles are pivotal to ensuring that the partnership remains relevant, resilient, and forward-looking.

A total of six universities rejected the applications of Edward Wong, who scored a 4.0 CGPA in the STPM examination. Wong, who wanted to be an accountant, took to social media to share his disappointment, with the post quickly gaining traction and the attention of MCA president Wee Ka Siong. Wong asked just how excellent a student needed to be to choose the course of study they desired. Conversely, students with lower scores were offered the accounting course that Wong had been rejected from. This brought into question the transparency, fairness, and consistency of Malaysia’s higher education system.

US tariffs imposed in Aug could slash up to 20% of Vietnam’s exports to the US, making it the worst-hit country in Southeast Asia, according to estimates by the UN Development Programme. Vietnam was the sixth-largest exporter to America last year, with USD136.5 bil (RM575.3 bil) worth of shipped goods. Should the worst-case scenario of very high tariff-driven US inflation occur, Vietnam risks losing exports over time worth more than USD25 bil (RM105.4 bil). As it stands, the potential 20% fall in Vietnamese exports is about twice the average possible drop of 9.7% in exports from the rest of Southeast Asia, a region that is heavily exposed to US trade.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

New system to strengthen our supply chain resilience
Malaysia’s Supply Chain Intelligent Management System (SCIMS) will go live in Dec to map vulnerabilities and strengthen resilience across eight key sectors, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, PPE, electronics, automotive, and food and beverage for livestock, aquaculture and agriculture. The system, developed during Covid-19, will track all stakeholders in each sector to identify risks amid global supply chain shifts and tariff challenges. RM100 mil financing under MIDF’s Global Market Access Accelerator (Glomax) is supporting at least 50 SMEs and mid-tier companies in expanding internationally through funding and advisory services, complementing Matrade and SME Corp export programmes. This is an effort to strengthen local vendor ecosystems and integrate SMEs, which make up around 98% of registered businesses into larger supply chains, while promoting regional collaboration.
Learn: What is supply chain resilience? 

Tribunal settles 54 harassment cases, new reforms
Malaysia’s anti-sexual harassment tribunal, operating since Mar 2024, has handled 54 cases with 22 (40.7%) decided for complainants, offering a cheaper, faster route than courts with cases resolved in 60 days. At the Forum Agenda Wanita Negara (FAWN) 2025, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Nancy Shukri said reforms include amendments to the Employment Act 1955, full enforcement of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act, gender focal points across ministries, and a 30% target for women in leadership. She also launched 30 Years of Cedaw Malaysia and the 2025 Women’s Leadership Apprenticeship Programme (Perantis). Women’s labour force participation is 56.3%, below the Madani framework’s 60% goal, compared with 82% for men.

BNM: Personal loans above RM100k need financial education course by 2027
Starting 2027, Malaysians seeking personal loans above RM100,000 must complete a financial education module run by lenders or the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) announced. Lenders may also require higher-risk borrowers to attend. The rules, covering all banks and development financial institutions, also mandate clear disclosure of effective interest rates. BNM said the measures aim to curb unaffordable borrowing as aggressive competition and new products drive households into unsustainable debt.

Traffic & Summonses Malaysia
Ops PUU: Strict traffic enforcement from Oct 1
Oct 1 onwards, police will stop issuing warnings and take strict enforcement under Ops PUU. 60,596 notices have been issued, mostly for illegal parking, ignoring traffic signs, not using pedestrian walkways, fancy plates, no helmets, stopping beyond white lines, no seatbelts, yellow box offences and illegal motorcycle modifications. Car drivers received 4,664 notices, motorcyclists 4,587 and pedestrians 1,224. Major hotspots include Jalan Loke Yew, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Jalan P. Ramlee and Jalan Tun Razak.

JPJ says 1.92 mil unpaid summonses risk blacklisting
Nearly 1.92 mil traffic summonses nationwide remain unpaid, and JPJ has warned that motorists who fail to settle them by year-end risk being blacklisted. The backlog includes 1.46 mil AwAS camera summonses, about 297,000 for illegal vehicle modifications (Section 114) and 165,000 for inspection offences (Section 115), some outstanding for over 10 years. Since Jan, 855,300 summonses have been cleared under the RM150 flat rate offer, which also waives KEJARA demerit points. After year end, the rate doubles to RM300, KEJARA points will be imposed, and blacklisting will begin. AwAS offences remain the biggest problem, with the Menora Tunnel in Perak alone recording up to 3,000 daily cases during festive periods. Selangor, Perak and Johor are the states with the most unpaid summonses, monitored by 49 AwAS cameras nationwide. At 1.92 mil outstanding summonses and assuming RM300 per summon (unsure if it’s per offence), that’s RM576 mil in additional revenue for the government. Not only an easy way to generate more revenue, but it also makes our roads a safe place - assuming properly enforced for the long-term with no more festive, ad hoc discount nonsense.

Non-subsidised RON95 fixed at RM2.60
On the first day of the Budi95 scheme, 60,000 officials purchased 1.3 mil litres of RON95. Malaysians pay the subsidised rate of RM1.99 per litre, with a 61 sen subsidy capped at 300 litres monthly (up to RM183), while non-subsidised RON95 is set at RM2.60 for the period Sep 30 to Oct 8. Public land and freight transport enjoy RM2.05 per litre, RON97 remains at RM3.21, and diesel is RM2.93 in Peninsular Malaysia and RM2.15 in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan. The government is working with e-hailing operators to channel extra subsidies to eligible drivers and may extend the scheme to boat operators in Sabah and Sarawak, with data collection underway.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Trump’s 20-point plan to “end the war” in Gaza
The White House had come up with a plan to end the “war” in Gaza through a 20-point proposal, saying that it would immediately halt the war in Gaza if both Israel and Hamas accepted. The proposal, among other points, includes an establishment of a demilitarised Gaza with Hamas being dismantled. It also says that Gaza will be temporarily administered by a transitional government of Palestinian technocrats, a political committee responsible for providing day-to-day services for the people of the Strip, but supervised by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” headed and chaired by President Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair (huh? 🤔). Humanitarian aid will also be allowed to return as per the Jan 2025 agreement, to be distributed by the United Nations, Red Crescent and other organisations not associated with either Israel or Hamas.

So, will this plan work?

An analysis by AlJazeera highlights that as is the case with the Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between some Arab countries and Israel, there’s been little input from the Palestinians in forming the plan. Despite announcements that Hamas has accepted the Trump ceasefire proposal, the group said it has yet to receive anything from Trump. Netanyahu’s allies in Israel have said that they would collapse his governing coalition if Netanyahu ends the war - so will he really end it? For Netanyahu to agree to end the war, Trump would need to apply serious pressure on the evasive Israeli leader.

PM Netanyahu apologises to Qatar
The Qatari PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani received an apology call from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, offering his apologies for the killing of a Qatari citizen during its attack on the Hamas leadership in Qatar this month. The call was made jointly with Trump, with Netanyahu expressing regret that, in targeting Hamas leadership during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty and affirmed that Israel will not conduct such an attack again in the future. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the call “as part of US efforts to address the repercussions of the Israeli aggression”.

In the UK: Tougher rules for migrants seeking to stay in country
Britain’s interior minister Shabana Mahmood proposed tough new rules for migrants seeking to settle in the UK - a plan designed to claw back support among voters drawn to the anti-immigrant Reform UK party, whose popularity is soaring. She said that migrants looking to remain indefinitely will have to have a job, not claim benefits, and undertake volunteer community work. They will also be required to make social security contributions and have a clean criminal record. Currently, migrants with family in Britain who have lived there for five years qualify for permanent residence, as do those who have lived legally in the UK for 10 years on any type of visa. Eligible applicants meeting those thresholds also earn the right to live, work and study in the UK and to apply for benefits and British citizenship. The UK is facing a battle over immigration issues that comes against a difficult economic backdrop and with government finances constrained by stubborn inflation and high borrowing costs.

OpenAI's first-half revenue up 16% to about USD4.3 bil
OpenAI was reported to generate around USD4.3 bil (RM18.1 bil) in revenue in the first half of 2025, about 16% more than it generated all of last year. However, research and development for artificial intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT had cost the ChatGPT maker USD6.7 bil in the same period, adding that it had about USD17.5 bil in cash and securities at the end of the period. The company looks to meet its full-year revenue target of USD13 bil and a cash-burn target of USD$8.5 bil.

Shorts:

1. US heads into possible shutdown 
   The US government was close to shutting down yesterday, judging by the empty outcome after the Democratic leaders and Trump’s administration meeting earlier. The Republicans - Trump’s party - accused the Democrats for not wanting to do the right thing, while the Democrats said they are holding back to push for preserving health-insurance subsidies. Funding for the US government will be cut off (hence the shutdown) unless the Republicans can agree with opposition Democrats on a way forward on a spending bill to fund government services into Oct and beyond. Although budget confrontations are common in US politics, this spending fight is especially tense because Trump has spent the last nine months drastically cutting the size of the national government. The last the government shut dwnn was in 2018.

2. Students killed in Indonesia school collapse 
   A building of an Islamic boarding school Al Khoziny in East Java, Indonesia had collapsed on Monday, killing one, with dozens injured and 65 presumed buried under rubble. The death toll was expected to be rising at the time of writing. The victims were mostly boys between the ages of 12 and 17 who were praying at the time of the collapse. The building was believed to be undergoing an unauthorised expansion and apparently was unable to support two floors of concrete and collapsed during the pouring process.

3. Typhoon Bualoi batters Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines 
   Typhoon Bualoi made landfall in northern central Vietnam on Monday, bringing huge sea swells, strong winds and downpour and had claimed victims across Vietnam, Thailand and Philipines, adding to the heavy flood from Typhoon Ragasa. In Vietnam, authorities said 19 people had been killed and 21 were missing, making it the most devastating storm to hit the country this year. Last week the typhoon killed at least 11 people in the Philippines. In Thailand, the national disaster prevention agency reported flooding in 17 provinces. Global warming is making storms such as these stronger and wetter, according to experts, since warmer oceans provide tropical storms with more fuel, driving more intense winds, heavier rainfall and shifting precipitation patterns across the region.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

It’s Wednesday. Some adrenaline to help you last the week.

1. 50-year-old skate legend Sandro Dias skateboarding down the world’s largest ramp in Brazil, 70 meters high. Watch drone’s POV here.

complex

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2. If you know Eminem’s Rap God, you know how fast the rap was. Watch content creator Aisha Humaira outrapped Eminem. Amazing. ‘Halal rap’, the comment says.

aisha.hmaira

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3. Do you know there’s such thing as Dog Sports Dance World Championship?

mygoldenpartner

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