Established on 26 January 1959 as the Central Bank of Malaya (Bank Negara Tanah Melayu), its main purpose is to issue currency, act as the banker and advisor to the government of Malaysia, and to regulate the country's financial institutions, credit system and monetary policy.

Landmarks located near the Central Bank building include Dataran Merdeka, St Mary's Cathedral, Kuala Lumpur City Hall building, Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur and the Tugu Negara.

There are still branches maintained in Penang, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Kuala Terengganu and Shah Alam.

Located along Jalan Dato Onn, the building was designed by renowned Malaysian architect firm, Hijjas Kasturi Associates.

In 1837 the Indian rupee was made the sole official currency in the Straits Settlements, but in 1867 silver dollars were again legal tender.

), was introduced by the Board of Commissioners of Currency for the Straits Settlements and private banks were prevented from issuing notes.

The bank responded by starting a program of aggressive speculative trading to make up these losses.

[8] Jaffar Hussein, the Central Bank Governor at the time, referred to this strategy as "honest-to-God trading" in a December 1988 speech in New Delhi.

In the late 1980s, Central Bank, under Governor Jaffar Hussein, was a major player in the forex market.

This resulted in capital flight of more than US$10 billion, thought to be due to the repatriation of speculative funds that entered the country in anticipation of the abandonment of the peg: Central Bank's foreign exchange reserves increased by $24 billion in the one-year period between July 2004 and July 2005 (see table below).

The platform, which is expected to go live by 2026, will interlink domestic fast payment systems of the member countries.