SC announces further relief measures for capital market licensed entities

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has announced further relief measures, which will immediately benefit 231 licensed entities, 30 registered audit firms and 9,663 licensed individuals.

In a statement today, the SC said these measures, which aim to ease the cost burden of capital market participants, complement the wider relief efforts under the Economic Stimulus Package 2020 (ESP 2020) unveiled by the government on Feb 27.

The new relief measures include a waiver of the SC’s annual licensing fees for 2020 on the core regulated activity of all Capital Markets Services Licence (CMSL) entities with profit before tax of RM5 million or less during financial year 2019, as well as a waiver of the annual licensing fees for the year 2020 for all individual CMSL holders and Capital Markets Services Representative’s Licence (CMSRL) holders.

It said a qualifying CMSL entity, who has already made the payment prior to this announcement, would be offered a credit to offset next year’s licensing fees.

The SC also announced the reduction of the minimum Continuing Professional Education (CPE) requirements to 10 CPE points from the current 20 CPE points, effective July 1, 2020, for a period of 12 months for all CMSRL holders and Employees of Registered Persons (ERPs).

It would also reduce the minimum training requirements to three days from the current five days, effective July 1, 2020, for a period of 12 months for trading representatives and marketing representatives.

Furthermore, it announced a one-off training subsidy for existing registered firms of the Audit Oversight Board (AOB) with less than 10 audit partners, up to RM30,000 per firm for Approved Training Programmes conducted by the Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA).

SC chairperson Syed Zaid Albar said the unprecedented scale of challenges Malaysia is facing today demands measured responses that offer relief in the short term and support for longer-term recovery.

“The SC is constantly monitoring the situation and weighing all available options. We would like to assure all market participants that the capital markets will continue to function to support the Malaysian economy,” he added.

- Bernama