{"id":7776,"date":"2026-09-23T04:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T04:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/?p=7776"},"modified":"2026-09-23T04:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T04:27:18","slug":"malaysian-bar-calls-for-banking-access-for-stateless-persons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/2026\/09\/23\/malaysian-bar-calls-for-banking-access-for-stateless-persons\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaysian Bar Calls for Banking Access for Stateless Persons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Malaysian Bar has urged banks and financial regulators to take immediate steps to end the financial exclusion faced by stateless persons in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bar president <strong>Anand Raj<\/strong> said the lack of officially recognized identity documents prevents many stateless individuals from opening bank accounts and accessing essential banking services. He argued that modern technologies, including biometric identification systems, should be used to help verify identities and promote financial inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also suggested that banks accept alternative documents such as school records, medical records, and other supporting evidence to enable stateless persons to participate in the formal financial system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Anand, while Bank Negara Malaysia requires banks to provide low-cost basic accounts for vulnerable groups, eligibility is currently limited to Malaysian citizens and permanent residents. Although registered refugees may use UNHCR-issued documents at the discretion of banks, stateless persons remain largely excluded from this provision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Malaysian Bar warned that denying access to banking services forces many stateless individuals to rely entirely on cash transactions, making them vulnerable to wage theft, financial exploitation, and economic insecurity. Without bank accounts, they face significant obstacles in receiving formal wages, saving money safely, or starting legitimate businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anand stressed that the right to earn a living with dignity is closely linked to access to basic financial services. He called on the banking industry, Bank Negara Malaysia, and relevant authorities to adopt practical and humanitarian solutions that would allow stateless persons to participate more fully in Malaysia&#8217;s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Source: Free Malaysia Today (FMT)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.freemalaysiatoday.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=1080,quality=80,format=auto,fit=scale-down,metadata=none,sharpen=1,dpr=1,onerror=redirect\/https:\/\/media.freemalaysiatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/5c0605fa-malaysian-bar-resize-fmt-141124.webp\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Malaysian Bar has urged banks and financial regulators to take immediate steps to end the financial exclusion faced by stateless persons in Malaysia. Bar president Anand Raj said the lack of officially recognized identity documents prevents many stateless individuals from opening bank accounts and accessing essential banking services. He argued that modern technologies, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights-constitution-federal-democracy-social-nets-minority-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7778,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7776\/revisions\/7778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}