Give banks more spaces to participate, invest in other businesses — Nazir

KUALA LUMPUR: More spaces should be given to banks to participate and invest in other businesses, including financial technology (fintech), said CIMB Group Chairman, Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.

From the banking perspective, he said, there should be a balanced treatment on the regulations imposed on the banking sector, whereby regulators should understand the pressures that banks were facing to stay competitive as well as to remain profitable.

“For instance, I have issues with the concept of sandboxes, of which, I think we need to come out with a structure where (the banks) should be given freedom to innovate,” he said during a session themed ‘Future of Finance’ here yesterday.

A sandbox acts as a layer between banks and their innovation initiatives and facilitates smooth collaborations between fintech companies and incumbents.

Nazir was one of the panellists during the session, which was organised in conjunction with the World Capital Markets Symposium 2018 held yesterday.

He said regulations should be loosened up in the amount of equity that banks could take.

CIMB Group Chief Executive Officer, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz, said CIMB was excited by the slew of capital market initiatives announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak earlier yesterday.

He said one of the initiatives, – Malaysia-Singapore Connect share trading – would not only attract more new players to participate in the wealth-creation of a total of 1,600 listed companies across both markets but also encourage financial product creation and diversification.