Mr. Toh Hock Chai

Since mid-March 2020, Hock Chai has been assisting OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad on a part time basis, as an Advisor, to improve its statistical reporting and data management. He is also the Senior Advisor to Chief Executive Officer of the China Construction Bank (Malaysia) Berhad to improve data management and drive digital transformation since August 2020.

Prior to this, Hock Chai has 33 years of experience in Bank Negara Malaysia, mainly in data management and system (IT) development; economic analysis, surveillance and policy formulation; and foreign exchange administration. He is graduated with Master of Applied Statistics and Bachelor Degree in Economics, both from the University of Malaya. He has also completed 5 modules of the Executive Data Science programme, authorised by John Hopkin’s University, offered through Coursera online.

Experience in Financial Sector

He was the Director of Statistical Services Department in the Bank from 2009 to 2019. He has vast knowledge and experience in data/information management and embracing. IT to improve work efficiency and productivity. During his tenure, the department has automated and digitalised the collection, compilation and dissemination of all core statistics, covering financial, credit, payments, monetary and macro-economic statistics. He played a pivotal role on successful implementation of an end-to-end integrated statistical system, including an Enterprise Data Warehouse, in the Bank. He has also charted the strategy and roadmap for the Bank to embrace Big Data, data science and data analytics, and had successfully delivered a Big Data Analytics Platform and several Data Science and Analytics initiatives.

Prior to this, he has served the Economics Department of the Bank for close to 7 years, involved in economic analysis, surveillance, forecasting, policy formulation and publication. He has in-depth knowledge on foreign exchange administration policies, rules and requirements, having worked in the Foreign Exchange Administration Department for 9 years. He joined the Bank as a public relation executive in late 1986, after more than a year of working with a private company, specialises in exhibition display systems and supplies.

Contributions to Central Banking and Statistical Communities

Hock Chai has been actively playing leadership role and contributing to the central banking and statistical communities at the domestic and international levels. He was one of the Council Members of the Institut Statistik Malaysia (ISM) from 2015 to 2019 and currently an Advisor to ISM. He has initiated the 1st national statistics congress (MyStats), jointly organised by the Bank with Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) in 2012. At the global front, he was the Executive Member of the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics (IFC Committee, which has around 90 central banks as members) of the BIS in Basel during 2015-2017, and as the Vice Chair of the committee in 2018-2019. He is an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and was the Chair of the ISI South East Asia (SEA) Outreach Committee during 2015 to June 2020. He has gained significant knowledge from, worked collaboratively with, and established strong professional network with central bankers around the world, given that IFC Committee has around 90 central banks as institution members. He has played a vital role in leading the successful organisation and hosting of the 62nd ISI World Statistics Congress 2019 in Malaysia, jointly with ISM and Department of Statistics, Malaysia.