BNM to postpone execution of 50 sen cheque processing fee from 1 April 2014 to 2 January 2015

There is insider news from local media that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) will soon announce a postponement of the execution of 50 sen cheque processing fee from 1 April 2014 to 2 January 2015.

About one year ago, I have written here that BNM reduced  the processing fee of Interbank GIRO (IBG) money transfer performed online via internet banking or mobile banking to 10 sen only, effective 2 May 2013.

At the same time, BNM intended to discourage the use of paper cheque by imposing a processing fee of 50 sen per cheque transaction on top of the existing 15 sen stamp duty, making the transaction per cheque to cost 65 sen to be borne by the cheque issuer. This is supposed to start soon on 1 April 2013.

Now, we are glad to hear the news that this policy will be postponed until year 2015.

In my previous article, I ended by saying that BNM really need to think through carefully before enforcing the "discouraging mechanism" of using cheque in order to get people to use electronic money transfer.

Now that after one year, we are still having a lot of questions which need clear direction, including:

• We can write cheque that honours a large amount of money transfer, such as hundreds of thousands to millions. How will this be handled in electronic transfer, which only allows a small amount of money to be transferred per day?
• We can have current account that requires 2 valid signatures on the same cheque before it is honoured. How will electronic transfer handle the requirement for co-signature?
• In certain scenario, we can make use of cheque to act as deposit/guarantee, which is kept by the recipient but will not be banked in immediately. How can electronic transfer handle this kind of requirement?

I hope that BNM can at least come out with a list of FAQ with answers, before the cheque processing fee is imposed, be it on 1 April 2014, or 2 January 2015, or other date.

Rooting the HiMedia Q5ii Android TV box

You might wonder why you need to root the Android TV box in the first place. Well, I also never thought about this, until the recent Chinese version of Q5ii firmware taken away the Google Play Store, and I need root access to restore the Google Play Store in the HiMedia Q5ii Android TV box.

In order to gain root access of the HiMedia Q5ii from your computer, you need to put connect them to the same local network. Then, as usual, you'll need the famous Android Debug Bridge (ADB.exe) which is distributed in the Android SDK Tools in Android Developers website. All Android developers and/or hackers should already have this Android SDK Tools in their computers.

Alternatively, you can also install ADB in your computer by downloading and installing the Minimal ADB and Fastboot package from XDA Developers website.

If until this point, you don't know what I am talking about, and you have no idea what is "root", you should not continue. This is because rooting an Android device, if not handled properly, might introduce risk and damage to your Android device.

If you still keen to continue, then copy these 3 required files to a new folder in your computer:

• adb.exe
• AdbWinApi.dll
• AdbWinUsbApi.dll

Then, we need the "su" binary and the Superuser.apk.

Download Superuser-3.2-arm-signed.zip here, unzip the file, and copy these 2 files into the folder where you put ADB just now:

• su
• Superuser.apk

Then, you need to find out the IP address of your HiMedia Q5ii Android TV box and use ADB to connect to its port 5555.

Go to Windows command prompt by executing "cmd" in Run...

Go to your folder with ADB, and issue the following commands:

• adb connect your_himedia_ip_address:5555
• adb root
• adb remount

An example of the command issuing and respond is as below...

Then continue with the following commands:

• adb push su /system/bin
• adb push su /system/xbin
• adb push Superuser.apk /system/app
• adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
• adb shell chmod 4755 /system/xbin/su

And finally, reboot your HiMedia Android TV box with this command:

• adb shell reboot

After the reboot, you should be able to gain the root access to your HiMedia Android TV box now.

CIMB credit card Statement of Account Delivery Instructions form

Effective 1 April 2014, CIMB Bank will force all their credit card members with online CIMB Clicks account to access to their monthly credit card statements via CIMB Clicks website. The bank will no longer send out the monthly credit card statements to them.

If you are affected, and wish to receive your monthly credit card statements by email or in hardcopy by post, you need to inform CIMB by filling up the so-called Statement of Account Delivery Instructions form and fax to 03-2381 7198 or email to cardcentre@cimb.com.

If you are looking for the form, it is available here as below:

You can also click here to download the CIMB credit card Statement of Account Delivery Instructions form in PDF format (English and Bahasa Malaysia).

You will receive a Notice on CIMB Bank Credit Card eStatement and its Terms and Conditions together with you March 2014 credit card statement sent by CIMB. Click here to download the softcopy of the Notice on CIMB Bank Credit Card eStatement and its Terms and Conditions.

I wonder if CIMB Bank has any legal standing to force their credit card members to accept such change in such a short period of time using this manner. Any lawyer reader here who can give some comment?