KUALA LUMPUR: The Securities Commission (SC) is confident that the Malaysian capital market will stay on track in delivering reforms, enhancing market competitiveness and strengthening governance frameworks and investor protection.
Chairman Datuk Mohammad Faiz Azmi noted that the country’s capital market expanded 3.2% on a year-on-year basis to RM4.3 trillion in 2025, driven by growth in the bond and sukuk market, amid a low interest rate environment.
The fund management industry also expanded with assets under management rising by 6.9% to a record RM1.14 trillion in 2025, buoyed by increased demand for fixed income and higher valuations, he said.
“Last year was a boring year but these days, in a volatile world, boring is good,” Mohammad Faiz said after the release of SC’s Annual Report 2025, Audit Oversight Board (AOB) Annual Report 2025 and Capital Market Stability Review (CMSR) 2025 here yesterday.
The SC targets to grow the country’s capital market from RM4.3 trillion to up to over RM6 trillion over the next five years, representing a compound annual growth rate of between 6% and 8%.
This will be driven by new initial public offerings (IPOs) among other corporate activities, he said.
He said the SC was working with Bursa Malaysia to bring in bigger IPOs, citing power utility and energy development group Sarawak Energy Bhd as one of the more interesting upcoming IPO exercises.
“We have seen the Premier of Sarawak on when is the best time to bring it to the market.”
Mohammad Faiz also touched on the regulator’s recent fee review and said it aimed to ensure the regulator’s long term financial sustainability.
“We have not changed it (fees) in 30 years and I think it’s only fair that we do this now, to be clear we are not doing this for profit,” he said.
The SC saw a net operating deficit of RM69.3mil in 2025.
In 2024, it reported a net operating surplus of RM20.70mil against a net operating deficit of RM56.46mil, a year earlier.
The SC has implemented its revised fee regulations, effective Jan 1.
On the current “Corporate Mafia” issue dominating headlines, Mohammad Faiz said the SC was not able to act on any related allegations if these did not fall under its purview, which is securities laws.
“I’ve been reading some reports, and I must say some of the things speculated in the press, actually have nothing to do with the SC.
“I don’t regulate murder and manslaughter, my job is securities laws,” he said.
He noted that while corporate takeovers could attract public attention, they were not necessarily illegal.
“It’s not a crime to want to take over companies provided they follow our takeover rules,” he added.
He also noted that the SC had a twin mandate, where it “doesn’t talk about the enforcement part”.
“We don’t talk about the enforcement part because it’s a secret,” he said, adding that nevertheless, the SC tries to be as transparent as possible to the market.
“It’s not that I don’t want to share but I do need to recognise the presumption of innocence,” he said.
Elaborating on the performance for 2025, the chairman said it reflected the fundamental strength of the Malaysian capital market.
He said the SC was aware of the market turbulence amid the global uncertainties, geopolitics and technological disruption.
“However, with the forward-looking Capital Market Masterplan 2026-2030 in place, the SC is optimistic that the Malaysian capital market will stay on course.”
In 2025, the Islamic capital market remained strong, growing by 4.31% to reach RM2.7 trillion while total funds raised via the capital market increased 35.4% to RM187.7bil.
Meanwhile, total committed funds in the venture capital and private equity industry increased by 21.66% to RM30.05bil while alternative financing avenues continued to facilitate financing to small and medium enterprises and mid-tier companies, with RM5.7bil raised in 2025.
Separately, the CMSR, which outlines comprehensive risk assessments on various components of the Malaysian capital market, noted that while the domestic market continued to be affected by the confluence of risk factors, it was able to operate in a fair and orderly manner with no systemic stability concerns observed, the SC said.
In the CMSR, it was noted that the equity and derivatives markets functioned in an orderly manner, with risk management mechanisms in place, ensuring systemic stability.
Meanwhile, no corporate bond defaults were recorded and public-listed companies’ steady earnings underscored their ability to withstand economic headwinds.
In the AOB, it was noted that in 2025, the AOB inspected a total of 41 audit engagements conducted by 40 individual auditors from 14 audit firms.
Some of the highlights included the AOB taking enforcement action against two audit firms and six individual auditors for breaching auditing standards.
The actions included prohibitions and monetary penalties, additionally, the AOB for the first time suspended an audit firm and two of its partners for serious audit quality issues and their failure to demonstrate improvements in audit quality from previous inspection findings, the SC said.
