Facilitative and Inclusive Ecosystem

The SC continued to build a facilitative and inclusive ecosystem for Malaysia’s corporate bond and sukuk market through digital innovation, strengthened governance and close collaboration with industry stakeholders. In 2025, the SC explored the use of blockchain and tokenisation to enhance market infrastructure, broaden accessibility and uphold strong regulatory and investor protection standards. As part of this effort, the SC and Khazanah Nasional announced a Bond Pilot to tokenise bond and sukuk, serving as a preliminary exploration of how blockchain can support more transparent, efficient and scalable bond market processes. The Bond Pilot aims to provide operational insights into the opportunities and challenges of applying blockchain solutions across the bond lifecycle.

To support ecosystem readiness, the SC engaged closely with industry stakeholders throughout the year. Roundtable sessions were held in June and July with investment banks and other market intermediaries to gather feedback on the SC’s regulatory corporate bond and sukuk frameworks. Discussions focused on improving distribution channels, strengthening governance and investor protection and addressing accessibility constraints to encourage greater retail participation in the market.

Further capacity building was undertaken through the SC’s Bond Tokenisation Workshop on 7 August 2025. This half-day workshop had convened 133 participants from regulatory bodies, issuers, intermediaries and technology providers. The sessions outlined Malaysia’s regulatory approach, introduced blockchain fundamentals and highlighted international experiences in digital bond issuance.

Regional collaboration was further strengthened through the Asian Bond Pricing Forum 2025, held on 21 October. The event was jointly organised by the SC, the Bond Pricing Agency Malaysia (BPAM) and the Thai Bond Market Association (ThaiBMA). The forum brought together regional policymakers, regulators and market practitioners to promote transparency, innovation and sustainability in ASEAN bond markets. In addition, the SC hosted PT Penilai Harge Efek Indonesia (PHEI) and the Indonesia Hajj Fund Management Agency (BPKH) on 29 October 2025. The engagement focused on sukuk market development, valuation approaches, regulatory considerations and Shariah aspects related to securitisation structures.

Together, these initiatives demonstrated the SC’s commitment to enabling a more accessible, resilient and innovation-ready corporate bond and sukuk market. By combining preliminary insights from the sukuk tokenisation pilot with broad-based stakeholder engagements, the SC continues to lay the foundation for a more inclusive and future-ready capital market.

Mitigating Systemic Risks And Promoting Financial Stability

Enhanced Risk Governance Framework

In 2021, the SC-wide risk governance framework was enhanced as part of an overall initiative to have an effective integrated and predictive risk surveillance to maintain regulatory agility.

The structured risk governance framework integrated the wider spectrum of risks such as technology, cyber and conduct risk at the SC’s Systemic Risk Oversight Committee (SROC) and Accounting, Market and Corporate Surveillance Committee (ACMS).

Intensified surveillance

The SC continued to intensify its surveillance of systemic risk to maintain market resilience and stability. Regular SROC engagements were held to deliberate concerns emanating from various segments across the capital market. Domestic equity and bond market, foreign fund flows and trade participation continued to be monitored closely for potential stress points.

In addition, measures and economic stimulus packages introduced by the government to weather the impact of COVID-19, market trading conduct and the financial position of listed companies were among the focus areas for discussion.

Thematic assessments

The SC also conducted thematic assessments covering investors’ fund flows, the position of firms, and policy decisions to ascertain the possible impact on the capital market. In 2021, the SC reviewed and enhanced its crisis indicators on potential emerging risks in the
capital market.

The enhanced crisis indicators provided a reference point for escalation to SROC when the identified indicators and triggers materialised and ensured prompt response to manage and prevent any issues of concern that might lead to a systemic crisis.

Joint regulatory discussions

In 2021, the SC conducted frequent joint regulatory discussions with other authorities such as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and Labuan Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA) to identify systemic risk concern areas within the financial and capital markets in Malaysia.

Monitoring of various components of the capital market

The SC continued its efforts to undertake a methodological and integrated approach to ensure any potential systemic risk was being monitored, mitigated, or managed. Figure 1 highlights the findings from the following risk assessments on the various components of the capital market.