Malaysia Fintech Regulatory Update - Nov 2017

Securities Commission outlines progress in Digital Market Strategy

Since the announcement of the Securities Commission (SC) Digital Market Strategy, its equity crowd funding (ECF) and peer to peer (P2P) financing platforms have funded 450 campaigns, raising more than US$ 12 mil to meet the financing needs of MSMEs. Money from existing grants will be co-invested in SMEs with private investors through ECF and P2P platforms. The Commission expects the first digital investment manager to be licensed in the first half of 2018 on the Digital Investment Management framework which was launched this year. It also announced measures to liberalize Malaysia's US$ 320 mil bond and sukuk market for retail participation and launched a centralized bond and sukuk information platform. The SC is also embarking on a pilot project to explore the usage of block chain in the unlisted and over-the-counter market space.

Securities Commission to launch cryptocurrency framework

In the next few months, the Securities Commission (SC) and Bank Negara Malaysia will craft a cryptocurrency framework after a review of regulations with the International Securities Commission. This will facilitate the secondary market trading of established cryptocurrency and digital assets. The framework will put in place investor safeguards among qualified operating exchanges. Also on the anvil is an industry blueprint for the capital market segment, as an outcome of SC’s aFINity program. aFINity is a fintech related industry association which, among other things, explores the use of distributed ledger technology.