KUALA LUMPUR, 23 September 2019 – Capital market regulators should enhance their investor education efforts to increase financial literacy and informed participation in the capital market, said Datuk Syed Zaid Albar, chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), at the IOSCO Growth and Emerging Markets (GEM) Conference 2019 in St Petersburg, Russia on 19 September 2019.
SC stated that there is a significant gap between emerging market and advanced economies as the nominal GDP per capita in advance economies almost nine times higher than the developing economies. Therefore, to catch up on the income levels in advance economies, households need to participate in wealth creation channels such as capital market.
“Effective investor education provides awareness to the public on available investment opportunities and equips investors with the right knowledge and tools to participate in a confident and informed manner. In other words, investor education in emerging markets is not only a form of investor protection, but also a tool to attract market participants,”
said Datuk Syed Zaid, Chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia
Further, it said that Malaysia’s National Strategy for Financial Literacy that aimed at raising financial literacy levels of Malaysian is a great initiative. The strategy recognizes that digitization is reshaping the economy, market, and regulatory strategy, making financial literacy even more pertinent.
The SC’s investor education and outreach initiatives are conducted under the banner of “InvestSmart”. SC’s annual flagship event, InvestSmart Fest, promotes knowledge in capital market products and services while raising public awareness of scams.
“The SC has embraced digitisation to make the capital market more accessible and inclusive for Malaysians. Financial technology has led to the emergence of alternative financial services including robo-advisors, equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer financing, which have reduced transaction times and investment cost. To ensure that investors are aware of the associated risks, including cyber risks, we also adapt our investor education efforts to respond to emerging digital trends,”
added Datuk Syed Zaid.
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