Asia Tech Wire (Mar 18) -- Malaysia's central bank has demanded an explanation from Google over incorrect ringgit exchange rate data.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said in a post on X on Saturday that it "firmly dismisses the inaccurate ringgit exchange rate data that has been circulating on social media."

BNM accused Google of posting an incorrect dollar-ringgit exchange rate on Friday that did not reflect the actual trading.

According to the BNM website, the ringgit stood at 4.7015 against the U.S. dollar at 9 a.m. on Friday, 4.7045 at 5 p.m., peaking at 4.7075 at one point during the session.

However, Google showed the exchange rate as high as 4.98 ringgit to the U.S. dollar on the day, higher than the official rate of about 4.7 ringgit.

This is the second time in 2024 that Google has published inaccurate data on the dollar-ringgit exchange rate, BNM noted.

When the first misreporting occurred on February 6, 2024, BNM had sent a "stern warning letter" to Google.

As this is the second misreporting, BNM will ask Google to explain how the misreporting occurred and the corrective measures taken.