GEORGE TOWN, April 24 -- An 18-year-old student who tried to open his first personal savings account was shocked when he was told that he was blacklisted from opening a bank account due to a blacklist he was placed on when he was nine years old.

Terry Choo Teck Lee went to Hong Leong Bank in Bayan Baru in early March to open a personal savings account so that he could apply for a Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN) loan to finance his studies.

However, a bank officer in the bank told him that he could not open any account in the bank because he was blacklisted in the system under "Tipping Offensive" since 2016.

"I was only nine years old at that time, I couldn't even open a savings account at that time without parental...