Bank Negara Malaysia has issued a circular on the appointment of Compliance Officers in the money services business ("MSB") industry to elevate the standards of professionalism and compliance within the industry. The circular stipulates that a licensed industry which registers an annual turnover of RM30 million and above is required to appoint a dedicated Compliance Officer to perform the compliance function in the licensed entity. What this means is that a licensee with a Chief Executive Officer who is also its Compliance Officer must now appoint another person to assume the other role. This is to ensure that the Compliance Officer is able to dedicate his / her time fully as such Compliance Officer, taking into account the size and scope of activities of the licensee.
In addition, the circular also mandates licensees with an annual turnover of RM100 million and above to ensure that their Compliance Officers are duly certified / accredited by the relevant recognised certification / accreditation bodies by 31 December 2018. This is for the purposes of effectively managing higher risks inherent in the operations of these types of licensees.
The Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 ("CIPAA") came into force on 15 April 2014. CIPAA provides a new regime in which an unpaid party can claim for payment for work done or services rendered under the express terms of a written construction contract. CIPAA was introduced to provide a speedy procedure for the temporary resolution of payment disputes in construction contracts. With such an objective in mind, CIPAA has invalidated the conditional payment clause in the construction contract in adjudications brought under CIPAA, mainly to ease cash flow issue in the construction industry.
Click here to read our client update discussing the operative effect of CIPAA and the position of conditional payment clause in light of recent developments.
The Malaysia Competition Commission ("MyCC") said on 9 April 2018 that there was no conclusive evidence of anti-competitive behaviour between industry players in the pharmaceutical and building material sectors in Malaysia. This was based on the results of the two market reviews that MYCC conducted - 'Market Review on Pharmaceutical Sector' and 'Market Review on Building Materials in the Construction Industry'. The two reports were finalised after public consultation sessions held in 2017.
In relation to the market review on the pharmaceutical sector, among the recommendations put forward by MyCC were to: (i) strengthen the domestic pharmaceutical industry and expand export markets to reduce reliance on imported originator medicines; (ii) review regulatory issues affecting industry players in respect of product registration and market authorisation; and (iii) encourage closer collaboration between the Ministry of Health, the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia, the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism, and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to identify and address the impact of intellectual property and competition laws on access to medicines and to the align relevant laws with policy objectives. Another recommendation was to adopt a coherent pricing policy as part of the National Medicines Policy, and to split large procurement tenders to enable more suppliers to compete.
In relation to the market review on building materials in the construction industry, among MyCC's recommendations were to monitor the pricing trend of vertically integrated players and regionally dominant players, promote the usage of local building materials, and increase awareness among suppliers and users of building materials on the Competition Act.
The Securities Commission Malaysia ("SC") has, on 6 April 2018, issued the new Guidelines on Contracts for Difference ("CFDs") to regulate the offering of CFDs in Malaysia. CFD, which is a form of derivative, can only be offered subject to the CFD provider obtaining the requisite licences and (among others) complying with the product and disclosure requirements under the new Guidelines. At this juncture, CFD providers are only allowed to offer CFDs where the underlying instrument is based on shares or indices (listed on securities exchange in or outside Malaysia), and offered exclusively to sophisticated investors. The Guidelines came into effect on 1 July 2018.
