Zeti Akhtar Aziz

Ungku Zeti Akhtar was born in Johor Bahru on 26 August 1947. Her father, Ungku Abdul Aziz, was an academic and social critic, and her mother, Azah Aziz, was a journalist and cultural historian. Zeti has called her parents a "tremendous inspiration" and "highly controversial for their ideas and opinions" at particular points in life.

After completing her early education at Assunta High School in Petaling Jaya in 1958, she continued her sixth form study at St. John's Institution in Kuala Lumpur. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in economics from UM in 1970. She then continued her education in the United States, where she earned a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in monetary economics and international trade from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Early career

Zeti returned to Kuala Lumpur in 1979 and began her career as a research economist at the South East Asian Central Banks Research and Training Centre, where she worked until 1984. During this time, she contributed to studies on interest rates and monetary aggregates and prepared the annual Economic Survey on SEACEN Countries, while also participating in the centre's training courses, seminars, and meetings. In 1985, after completing two volumes on regional interest rate reform and gaining recognition from the Malaysian Central Bank governor Ismail Mohamed Ali, she became deputy manager in the economics section of the central bank.

Assistant governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia

In 1995, Zeti was appointed assistant governor of Central Bank of Malaysia. During the Asian financial crisis in 1998, she formulated and implemented capital control measures to stabilise the Malaysian ringgit. Under her direction, the central bank fixed the ringgit at 3.80 per US dollar, prohibited offshore trading, and restricted capital outflows to curb speculation. These policies were intended to restore monetary stability and protect Malaysia's economy from external shocks. Zeti explained that the controls were necessary to "minimise the impact of a possible economic crisis and a breakdown in the international financial system." Economists such as Paul Krugman supported the use of such controls to stabilise economies during financial turmoil, while Ethan Kaplan and Dani Rodrik later argued that Malaysia's recovery under these measures was stronger than that of countries that adopted the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) conventional policies.

Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia

Following the resignation of Ahmad Mohd Don, she was appointed acting governor on 31 August 1998 while concurrently serving as assistant governor alongside Ali Abul Hassan Sulaiman. She was confirmed as the seventh governor of the Malaysian central bank on 1 May 2000, becoming the institution's first female head. In 2001, she joined the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Central Bank Governance Group, and her term as governor was extended for a further five years in 2006.

During her tenure, Zeti oversaw the gradual lifting of capital controls introduced during the Asian financial crisis and, on 21 July 2005, removed the ringgit's peg to the US dollar. Under her leadership, Malaysia transitioned to a flexible exchange rate regime to enable more efficient adjustment to global and financial developments. The change was implemented after establishing the necessary preconditions for a stable and functional foreign exchange market and formed part of a wider financial sector strategy that sought to strengthen the domestic bond market and reduce the economy's dependence on the banking system.

Zeti also contributed to the development of Malaysia's financial and educational institutions. She helped establish the International Centre for Leadership in Finance in 2003 and later founded the Asia School of Business in collaboration with the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2015. Internationally, she held several leadership roles, including chair of the East Asia-Pacific Central Banks task force, co-chair of the Financial Stability Board's Regional Consultative Group for Asia, and chair of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Asian Consultative Council (ACC) from October 2008 to September 2010, succeeding Y. V. Reddy and later succeeded by Masaaki Shirakawa. In 2009, she served as a member of the United Nations Task Force on Financial System Reforms. Zeti also advanced the field of Islamic finance by leading Malaysia's first sovereign sukuk issuance, chairing the committee that established the Islamic Financial Services Board, and contributing to the creation of the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation and the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance.

In May 2011, Zeti was identified as a potential nominee to head the IMF following the departure of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. She later delivered the Per Jacobsson Lecture at the BIS in Basel in March 2014, addressing financial crisis management and the role of central banks in maintaining economic stability. In June 2015, she highlighted the importance of central banks in monitoring liquidity and solvency, implementing macroprudential regulations, and coordinating policy responses, while stressing the need for transparency and institutional checks to prevent misuse of authority.

Later in 2015, Zeti managed a period of currency pressure in Malaysia linked to political and economic uncertainties, including the 1MDB scandal, which contributed to the depreciation of the ringgit due to capital outflows and weak investor confidence. In response, the central bank revoked permissions for 1MDB's overseas investments and maintained a managed float exchange rate system to safeguard financial stability and market integrity. Zeti emphasised that, despite political tensions, the central bank’s policies would continue to support growth, control inflation, and ensure orderly financial markets. She concluded her sixteen-year tenure as governor with her final interest rate announcement in March 2016 and officially retired on 30 April 2016, succeeded by Muhammad Ibrahim, becoming the second longest-serving governor in the history of the Central Bank of Malaysia.

Zeti is descended from Roquaiya Hanim through both her paternal and maternal lines. Roquaiya's children with Ungku Abdul Majid included Ungku Abdul Aziz, the sixth Menteri Besar of Johor, and Ungku Abdul Hamid. The latter's son, Ungku Abdul Aziz, became vice-chancellor of UM and was Zeti's father. On her mother's side, Azah Aziz was the daughter of Azizah, another child of Roquaiya. Her father, Ungku Abdul Aziz, was of Malay–Turkish and English descent, while her mother, Azah Aziz, belonged to the Alsagoff family of Hadhrami origin. Zeti is married to Tawfiq Ayman, chairman of the Asian Institute of Finance, and they have two children.