The SC Chairman, Dato' Md Nor Yusof said the MoU was a significant step towards maintaining the integrity of capital markets as it would facilitate securities regulators working together to prevent the use of international capital markets for money laundering, terrorist financing, and other forms of international financial crime.

"At a time of increasing internationalisation of securities markets which continues to create new challenges for all jurisdictions in terms of investor protection, competition and liquidity, it is vital for regulators to cooperate to ensure effective cross-border regulation and exchange of information in order to maintain smooth and well-supervised markets that remain attractive to investors", said Dato' Md Nor.

From a developmental perspective, the Islamic capital market will be one of the key areas of collaboration between the SC and the ESCA. In this regard, the MoU will facilitate the transfer of knowledge from the SC to the ESCA and vice versa in relation to developing Islamic capital market products and services.

"The transfer of knowledge and expertise between markets is key to the overall development of the global securities market. The Islamic capital market is a growth area, which both jurisdictions are well placed to capitalise on, as such we welcome this arrangement to co-operate and assist in developing each of our markets," said Dato' Md Nor.

The high-level delegation from the UAE comprised the UAE Minister of Economy & Planning and Chairman of the ESCA, HE Sheikha Lubna Khalid Al-Qassimi; the Chief Executive of the ESCA, Abdullah Al-Turaifi; the Assistant Under-Secretary for International Co-operation Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Abdul Rahim Abdul Jalil; and Assistant Under-Secretary for Economic Affairs & International Co-operation, Ministry of Economy and Planning, Abdullah Ahmad Al-Saleh. They were accompanied by the UAE Ambassador to Malaysia, HE Nasser Al-Abboudi.

To-date, the SC has signed 23 MoU with its foreign counterparts.