Dr. Zeti became the Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia in May 2000. Prior to this, she was the Deputy Governor, a position she had held since September 1998.
Dr. Zeti joined the Economics Department in Bank Negara Malaysia in 1985 and was appointed Secretary to the Board of the Bank in 1987. In 1989, she was posted to the Bank Negara Malaysia London Representative Office as the Chief Representative. Upon returning to the Head Office in 1994, Dr. Zeti was appointed the Bank's Chief Economist and Head of the Economics Department. In 1995, she was appointed the Assistant Governor responsible for economics, reserve management, foreign and money market operations and exchange control.
On September 1, 1998 during the financial crisis faced by Malaysia, Dr Zeti was appointed as Acting Governor and led the Bank Negara Malaysia team to successfully introduce and implement the selective exchange controls.
Prior to joining the Bank, Dr Zeti was attached to the South East Asian Research and Training Centre (SEACEN) from 1979-1984 as a research economist conducting research in the area of financial policies and reform in the South East Asian region. She has published in the areas of monetary and financial economics, capital flows and macroeconomic management
.Dr. Zeti received B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Malaya and Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania, specialising in monetary and international economics. As part of her dissertation, Dr. Zeti carried out pioneering work on capital flows and its implications for monetary policy.