Bank Negara Malaysia permits it in general terms. Under Notice 4 of the Foreign Exchange Policy Notices, a resident may make or receive payment in foreign currency to or from a non-resident for any purpose, and a resident individual may hold a foreign currency account with a licensed onshore bank. The permission matters because receiving a payment is itself a listed transaction under Schedule 14 of the Financial Services Act 2013, which no person may undertake without the written approval of the Bank.
Malaysia allows it, in writing and in advance. The Foreign Exchange Policy Notices issued by Bank Negara Malaysia let a resident receive a payment in foreign currency from a non-resident for any purpose, and hold that money in a foreign currency account. Both of those are standing permissions, because Malaysian law treats the receiving of a payment as an act that needs one.
Key Takeaways
- Receiving a payment is a listed transaction under Schedule 14 of the Financial Services Act 2013, which nobody may undertake without the written approval of Bank Negara Malaysia.
- The Foreign Exchange Policy Notices are that approval. The current set took effect on 1 October 2025.
- Notice 4 allows a resident to receive payment in foreign currency from a non-resident for any purpose, with three exclusions that all concern derivatives.
- Residency under the notices turns on citizenship and permanent resident status, not on how long somebody has lived in the country.
- The one-million-ringgit annual ceiling in Notice 3 binds only a resident individual who has domestic ringgit borrowing, and it counts three funding sources together: converting ringgit, a Trade Foreign Currency Account, and swapping a ringgit financial asset. Foreign currency arriving from outside Malaysia is not one of the three.
Why receiving money needs a permission at all
Because Malaysian law starts from a prohibition and grants exceptions.
Schedule 14 of the Financial Services Act 2013 lists categories of transaction. Item 3 is the making of any payment by a person to another person, including a payment to or for the credit of a non-resident. Item 4 is shorter: the receiving of any payment in paragraph 3. The Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 carries the same schedule, and its section 225 states the purpose. The Bank is empowered under that section to safeguard the balance of payments position and the value of the currency of Malaysia, and no person shall undertake or engage in any transaction set out in Schedule 14 except with the written approval of the Bank.
The recipient side of a transfer is therefore a regulated act rather than a passive one. Section 214 of the Financial Services Act 2013 carries the same prohibition in its own words, and under that section undertaking a listed transaction without approval, or breaching a requirement, restriction or condition imposed under an approval, carries up to ten years imprisonment or a fine of up to fifty million ringgit, or both.
The notices are the standing approval that makes ordinary life possible. Their preamble records that they are issued under sections 214(2), 214(5), 214(6) and 261 of the Financial Services Act and matching sections of the Islamic Act, and that the current set took effect on 1 October 2025.
Which notice covers a personal transfer from Australia to Malaysia
Notice 4, Payment and Receipt, is the one that governs it. There are seven notices in all, plus an interpretation.
| Notice | Subject | Bearing on money arriving from abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dealings in currency, gold and other precious metals | Converting the arriving currency into ringgit |
| 2 | Borrowing, lending and guarantee | Not engaged |
| 3 | Investment in foreign currency asset | Holding the money in foreign currency once it lands |
| 4 | Payment and receipt | The core permission, and the account rules |
| 5 | Securities and financial instruments | Not engaged |
| 6 | Import and export of currency | Currency physically carried across the border |
| 7 | Export of goods | Proceeds of exported goods |
Paragraph 5 of Notice 4 is the sentence a recipient of a remittance relies on. A resident is allowed to make or receive payment in foreign currency, to or from a non-resident, for any purpose. Three things are excluded and all three are derivatives.
Notice 1 sits next to it for a recipient who wants ringgit rather than the arriving currency. It governs the buying or selling of foreign currency against ringgit on a spot basis with a licensed onshore bank, which is the step that follows arrival rather than the arrival itself.
Set paragraph 5 beside Part B of Notice 4, which deals with a non-resident receiving ringgit inside Malaysia. That is not an open permission but a closed list: any purpose between immediate family members, income earned or expense incurred in Malaysia, or settlement of a trade or of a ringgit asset. The two sit two pages apart, and which applies turns on a definition.
Who counts as a resident, and why it may not be who you expect
Residency here is a legal status, not a description of where somebody lives.
The interpretation defines a resident as a citizen of Malaysia, excluding a citizen who has obtained permanent resident status in a country or territory outside Malaysia and is residing outside Malaysia. It also covers a non-citizen holding permanent resident status in Malaysia and ordinarily residing there, bodies registered or approved in Malaysia, and the government or any state government.
Two consequences follow for a sender in Australia. A Malaysian citizen living in Malaysia is a resident even if they have never held an account there. A foreign national working there on a pass short of permanent residence is a non-resident whatever their address, so the narrower ringgit rules and the external account rules describe their position instead. The central bank may also direct that a person be treated as a resident or a non-resident notwithstanding the Act.
Which account the money may be received into
Notice 4 answers this in its final part, and answers it differently for the two statuses.
A resident individual may open and maintain a foreign currency account with a licensed onshore bank or a non-resident financial institution, alone or jointly. A non-resident may open and maintain an external account, which is a ringgit account, with a financial institution in Malaysia.
The external account carries a condition worth knowing before it is met at a counter. A footnote allows any payment, receipt or transfer into or out of one provided the non-resident can produce documentary evidence that the purpose of the transaction complies with the relevant notices.
Whether the recipient may keep it in foreign currency
Yes, and the ceiling in the notices does not bite on money from outside Malaysia.
A deposit in an investment foreign currency account with a licensed onshore bank is defined in the interpretation as a foreign currency asset, which puts it inside Notice 3. That notice allows a resident individual without domestic ringgit borrowing to invest in foreign currency assets up to any amount. The ceiling appears only in the next paragraph, which covers a resident individual who does have domestic ringgit borrowing. Such a person is still allowed any amount using foreign currency funds sourced from outside Malaysia, other than proceeds of exported goods, and any amount from an approved foreign currency borrowing. The one million ringgit equivalent per calendar year is a separate limb, and it applies to the aggregate of three named funding sources: conversion of ringgit into foreign currency, a Trade Foreign Currency Account, and swapping a ringgit-denominated financial asset in Malaysia for a financial asset held outside Malaysia or in a Labuan entity.
Read those limbs together and the policy is visible. The metered routes are the ones that start from ringgit or from a ringgit asset already inside Malaysia. Foreign currency sent in from outside sits on the unmetered limb, which is what an Australian dollar to Malaysian ringgit transfer delivers.
Where to look next
How international transfers work sets out the mechanics a transfer passes through before these rules apply, and what has to exist for a currency to cross a border covers when a currency may leave its jurisdiction. For live figures, see the Australian dollar to Malaysian ringgit page.
Sources
- Bank Negara Malaysia, Foreign Exchange Policy Notices, Preamble and Interpretation, 2 October 2025 - the enabling powers, the commencement date, the offence provision and the definitions
- Bank Negara Malaysia, Foreign Exchange Policy Notice 4: Payment and Receipt - the permission at paragraph 5, the ringgit list in Part B, and the account rules
- Bank Negara Malaysia, Foreign Exchange Policy Notice 3: Investment in Foreign Currency Asset - funds from outside Malaysia against funds from converting ringgit, and the annual ceiling
- Bank Negara Malaysia, Foreign Exchange Policy Notice 1: Dealings in Currency, Gold and Other Precious Metals - buying or selling foreign currency against ringgit on a spot basis
- The two statutes carrying the prohibition, the listed transactions at items 3 and 4 of Schedule 14, and the penalty of up to ten years imprisonment or up to fifty million ringgit, in parallel provisions: Financial Services Act 2013 (Act 758), section 214 and Schedule 14 and Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 (Act 759), section 225 and Schedule 14
General information about sending money to Malaysia and the rules that apply to the person receiving it. Not financial advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
Is there a limit on how much money a person in Malaysia can receive from overseas?
Not in Notice 4. Paragraph 5 allows a resident to make or receive payment in foreign currency to or from a non-resident for any purpose, with three exclusions that all concern derivatives. A ceiling does appear elsewhere in the notices, but it governs converting ringgit into foreign currency rather than receiving foreign currency from abroad.
Who counts as a resident under the Bank Negara Malaysia notices?
The interpretation issued with the notices defines a resident as a citizen of Malaysia, other than one holding permanent resident status abroad and living abroad; a non-citizen with permanent resident status in Malaysia who is ordinarily residing there; bodies registered or approved in Malaysia; and the government. Everyone else is a non-resident.
Can a person in Malaysia keep money from abroad in the currency it arrived in?
Yes. Notice 4 allows a resident individual to hold a foreign currency account with a licensed onshore bank or a non-resident financial institution. Funds held there count as investment in a foreign currency asset under Notice 3, and a resident without domestic ringgit borrowing may invest up to any amount.
What is an external account in Malaysia?
A ringgit account held by a non-resident with a financial institution in Malaysia, which Notice 4 permits. A footnote adds the condition: any payment, receipt or transfer into or out of one is allowed provided the non-resident can produce documentary evidence that the purpose of the transaction complies with the relevant notices.
What law gives the Bank Negara Malaysia notices their force?
The Financial Services Act 2013 and the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013. Schedule 14 of each lists transactions no person may undertake without written approval, and both the making and the receiving of a payment appear on it. Contravention carries up to ten years imprisonment or a fine of up to fifty million ringgit, or both.