KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — State investment arm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) poses fewer risks for the Malaysian financial system compared to six months ago, credit rating agency Moody’s said today.

In a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Moody’s Investors Service’s vice-president Christian de Guzman said that this was due to the debt rationalisation programme undertaken by 1MDB.

“1MDB is less of a risk now than it was six months ago,” he told reporters.

“We have said before that 1MDB does not pose a systemic risk to the financial system, and the risk is even lesser now,” he added.

1MDB went through a debt rationalisation programme recently that saw them selling off some assets, including power producer Edra Global Energy Bhd and some land parcels in the national capital, to offset a RM42 billion debt.

Putrajaya however had consistently maintained that 1MDB has assets that are more valuable than its RM42 billion debt.