Zain Azhari Mazlan, executive director of corporate finance and investments at the SC, said the regulator will enhance stakeholder engagement to provide investors with greater access and wider choices in investment opportunities.
“Initiatives by the SC, such as the liberalisation of the unit trust framework and the revised sustainable responsible investment (SRI) fund guidelines, will help facilitate growth in the industry by providing investors with more investment options while ensuring transparency,” he said.
Zain, who was speaking at the 2023 Morningstar Fund Awards event today, noted that as part of the SC’s efforts to facilitate the growth of the fund management industry, it has liberalised the unit trust framework.
“The liberalisation measures support an investment ecosystem that is more diversified, and provide a catalyst for product offerings as part of wealth management solution to meet investors’ retirement objectives,” he added.
The SC has also revised the guidelines around SRI funds to enhance reporting and disclosure requirements, and to enable them to qualify as Asean SRI funds.
Zain said this would open the Asean investor base to Malaysian SRI fund managers, opening up opportunities to attract new investments.
The SC has also expanded its regulatory framework to extend the SRI ecosystem to shariah compliant investments.
“The SRI-linked sukuk framework that was issued in 2022 will facilitate more innovative shariah-compliant financing avenues for sustainability purposes,” Zain said.
He also stressed the SC’s continued advocacy for stronger investor education to protect vulnerable investors.
He said the SC recognised the need to change to uphold its mandate to protect investors.
In line with that, he said, the SC’s regulatory approach will place greater emphasis on the identification and assessment of vulnerable investors.
Looking to the future, Zain said the SC is exploring how behavioural interventions can be leveraged on to encourage greater retirement savings amongst Malaysians.
This includes designing interventions to nudge Malaysians into making better decisions for retirement.