Malaysia’s formidable central bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz endured quite a month in October. It began with her contemplating the fresh lows that her beloved ringgit had plumbed on September 30, having lost 40% of its value in a year to become Asia’s worst-performing currency, and taking much of her carefully-tended reserves nest egg with it. While in Lima networking at the annual IMF-World Bank meetings, she stood up to Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak to defend the independence she had so painstakingly won for Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the country’s central bank. On October 9, BNM said it would pursue criminal prosecution of Malaysia’s controversial sovereign fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) for breaching Malaysia’s exchange controls…..continues