LAST year was a defining period for the financial services industry. We saw the collapse of several high profile financial institutions abroad, emergency bailout of others, departures of CEOs and CFOs, write-offs amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, financial institutions’ efforts to raise fresh capital, regulatory authorities looking to introduce new regulation and bankers’ remuneration being questioned.
Fortunately, in Malaysia, while financial institutions were concerned with the contagion effect of this turmoil, they were not affected significantly.