Against a background of global concern regarding financial regulation, the Monetary Authority of Brunei Darussalam (AMBD) was set up on January 1st, amid expectations it would play a vital role in protecting Bruneian consumers from fraudulent financial products and mis-selling of investments. Financial regulation was previously handled by the government's Financial Institutions Division, a department of the Ministry of Finance, but the inauguration of the AMBD, which is responsible for both monetary policy and banking sector regulation, should lead to better policy co-ordination in the future. Management of the national currency, the Brunei dollar, also comes under the AMBD's remit.

The Ministry of Finance denied rumours that the creation of the AMBD would lead to a breaking of the peg of the Bruneian dollar to the Singaporean dollar. One implication of the peg is that Brunei has little scope to pursue monetary policy independently, but the link to the Singapore dollar is seen as having been a boon to the Bruneian economy since its introduction in 1967, not least in warding off "Dutch disease", whereby resource-rich economies grapple with overly strong currencies.