Malaysia's counterfeiting index is well below the international benchmark of 15 ppm. The country's score peaked at 1.9 ppm in 2015 and had been on a steady decline, reaching just three fake notes per 10 million in 2022, or 0.3 ppm. Until recently, that is...

The rate jumped to 1.6 ppm in 2023, according to Bank Negara Malaysia, which attributes the increase to a single incident involving 3,868 pieces of forged ringgit notes.