FOCUS ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Regulator to continue facilitating growth while safeguarding stakeholders
THE Securities Commissions (SC), as a dualmandate regulator, will continue to strike a balance between facilitating growth and safeguarding stakeholders, particularly in the face of heightened competition and financial innovation.
The focus this year will be on the promotion of strong and internally-driven culture of corporate governance among listed companies.
SC chairman Datuk Syed Zaid Albar said ongoing efforts enabled Malaysia to emerge as the biggest gain- er among 12 Asian markets in corporate governance standard.
The country moved from sixth to fourth position in the 2018 Corporate Governance Watch.
“In 2018, the SC observed a deeper appreciation of corporate governance, reflected through the adoption of the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance such as the disclosure of senior management remuneration and the adoption of two-tier voting approach for the reappointment of long serving independent directors,” he said at a briefing on SC’s annual report yesterday
“The SC also emphasised high standards of market conduct through its supervision and surveillance efforts.
“Where misconduct was identified last year, the SC deployed a range of enforcement tools under its administrative, civil and criminal powers, resulting in sanctions which included over RM30 million in disgorgement and fines.”
Another focus this year would be on the strengthening of cyber
The Securities Commission also emphasised high standards of market conduct through its supervision and surveillance efforts.
security.
The SC had developed a central platform to enable capital market entities to swiftly and securely report cyber incidents.
Through this portal, which was officially launched in January, capital market entities will be able to leverage information to enhance awareness and detection capabilities as well as effectively respond to and recover from incidents based on the threat information.
The SC’s engagement with stakeholders continued last year, with quarterly sessions with representatives from industry associations to discuss cyber-related issues via the Cyber Risk Working Group.
The SC will also look into reviewing the entire primary market framework, including the approach to approving initial public offerings, improving investor experience by digitising the broking value chain as well as strengthening supervision and surveillance in areas of risk, particularly with growing prominence of digital assets and trading strategies, among others.
DATUK SYED ZAID ALBAR
Securities Commission chairman