Verity journal

Background Screening

As we strive to develop Malaysia to be a better nation, many industries such as banking and insurance continue to grow and adapt to provide the best service possible. This has resulted in 83% of Malaysians becoming more trusting of the local financial sector over the last decade. They attribute this trust towards increased regulations protecting consumers and improved financial practices.

That being said, there are still looming concerns when engaging with financial services companies such as in areas concerning data privacy and security. We don’t even have to look so far for examples – the persistent calls from banks or odd strangers selling you credit card plans or insurance is enough to get you worrying about who has your personal information and what are they doing with it.

New policy, new challenges

In a continuous effort to increase trust in the banks and insurance companies in Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has recently introduced the Employee Screening Policy on 1 July 2018. With this policy, financial institutions are required to conduct a screening on prospective employees with some requirements stated as below:

1. Financial institutions must request for employment references from current and past employers of the prospective employee.
2. Financial institutions receiving a request for employment references must provide specified information in response to the request.
3. Prospective employees must provide a statutory declaration on past criminal convictions or ongoing criminal investigations or proceedings that he/she may be the subject of.
4. Financial institutions must make an inquiry with the Financial Markets Association of Malaysia before employing:
   • any individual as a financial market dealer; and
   • any former financial market dealer or broker into any position.

Based on the above requirements alone, one can only imagine the tremendous amount of work needed to screen through all of the employees, more so if you are a company with a MNC status. This is not including all other hiring processes such as vetting through piles of resumes arranging for interviews, and determining fit with company. The longer your processes, the more time and resources spent.

Reducing burdens 

This is where Verity Intelligence’s specialty in background screening can assist to address these challenges.

Our confidential and objective background screening methods provides quick and systematic results to some of your deepest hiring worries. Be in the know whether your potential hire is who they really claim to be, has any civil suits, credit defaults, business interests, academic qualifications and criminal records with our service – concerns that are valid, especially in the banking sector.

To maintain the integrity and credibility of the banks and insurance companies, Verity Intelligence conducts its screening in compliance with the current PDPA regulations. Ultimately, our services enable the banking and insurance industry to comply with the Employee Screening Policy by BNM while streamlining hiring SOPs for efficiency. Find out more on how banks and insurance companies can benefit from background screening by visiting www.verityintel.com.

“At Verity Intelligence, our entire process complies with the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act as we are very serious about regulatory compliance and respecting the privacy of individuals. The information we obtain, screen or verify from is also publicly and legally available.”