It has undoubtedly been another challenging year for the Malaysian capital market. Nevertheless, the domestic capital market grew by 3% to RM3.5 trillion in 2021 on the back of a robust capital market regulatory infrastructure, diversified market ecosystem and market participants’ strong capitalisation levels. More importantly, the capital market continued to play its critical roles in financing the economy and intermediating savings with notable increase in fundraising activities and encouraging growth of the overall fund management industry.

In the past year, the SC worked closely with Bursa Malaysia and key stakeholders to help businesses recover and rebuild from the economic impact of COVID-19. Various regulatory reliefs for the market and listed companies were extended while the SC adjusted its strategic priorities to ensure the capital market remains fair and orderly, and emerging risks are monitored effectively. We continue to advance our development initiatives particularly in promoting the sustainability agenda, growing the Islamic capital market (ICM) and harnessing innovation.

The SC also released the Capital Market Masterplan 3 (CMP3) in the second half of the year. This will set the tone and direction for development and regulatory initiatives for the medium term. I am confident that CMP3 will engender a market ecosystem that is relevant, efficient, diversified and inclusive.