World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation (WIEF), in collaboration with Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC) recently organized the WIEF SIDC POWERTALK webinar 2020, entitled Moving Forward: Banking & Capital Market Trends, on 8 December 2020 at 11:00am to 12:15pm (+8 GMT).
Moderator, Raja Teh Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz, Managing Director of Wholesale Banking, AmBank Group Malaysia and WIEF Advisory Board Member, started the session with a presentation from Peter Burns. He explained, ‘across the world, more than 50 per cent of GDP is occupied by small businesses. More importantly, if we are trying to get the stimulus back into the market, we need to impact employment in a broad way and we need to get money travelling towards small businesses.’ He added, ‘the real challenge for banking is to be able to pick those part of economy to bounce faster.’
Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, Chairman of Bursa Malaysia, in his presentation said, ‘this pandemic has caused damage and sufferings to most businesses, especially the energy, infrastructure, consumer products, constructions and financial sectors. However, we also seen the healthcare and technology counters benefiting tremendously, healthcare index has gone up 221 per cent and the technology has improved by 72 per cent.’ He explained that the government stimulus packages have helped to boost investors’ confidence, which managed to result in a rebound of FBMKLCI from a low of 1,219.72, on 19 March 2020 to a YTD 2020 high of 1,628.26 on 3 December 2020.
‘Low interest rate environment is important to lessen debt service burden for households and businesses alike and stimulate investment and consumption, at least until the economy recover.’ Tan Sri Wahid said.
The FBMKLCI declined by only 1.6 per cent YTD Nov 2020, thanks to Healthcare and Glove stocks holding the FBMKLCI level resilient. Without these three companies, namely Hartalega Holdings Bhd, IHH Healthcare Bhd, Top Glove Corporation Bhd, the FBMKLCI would have fallen by 11 per cent.
Answering Raja Teh about sceptics on Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG), Tan Sri Wahid said, ‘looking at the performance of companies, in term of index, the Syariah index and ESG index are performing better than the rest of the market. That is enough evidence that companies that embrace ESG will get better evaluation. ESG will become a necessity, moving forward.’
As much as the pandemic has disrupted the economy, there are also significant positive impacts to the banking and capital market industry. ‘The pandemic has accelerated digitization, by five to seven years, of what naturally would have occurred. The biggest positive impact would be adoption and ability for consumers to move into alternate ways to access information from financial institutions.’ Peter Burns said. ‘The leadership teams of most banks have also surprised themselves at how quickly they are able to respond to crisis, make decisions and move their organisation forward, by breaking the bureaucracy of the past that many are struggling with. This pandemic also has enabled a better workforce participation, by balancing their work, life and their employment commitment in an environment where working away from office is now widely accepted.’ Peter added.
The role players also discussed on how to make stock market investments more enticing to younger generations. The speakers concluded that to do so, they need a multiple prong approach, to cater to different investors’ preferences. Among options that are readily available in the global market are online brokering and mobile app and the traditional remisier.
‘We are going through a tough time, and the Malaysian government has done what they could with the RM305billion economic stimulus packages in the market. The only way to move forward from this is to reopen the economy because for as long as the economy remain closed, very little can be done. We need to allow businesses to operate again and reap the revenue, allow employees to get their jobs back and we need to learn to live with COVID-19 in a safe manner.’ Tan Sri Wahid emphasized. ‘It is important for us in the banking and capital market industry to have empathy with the customers, individuals and companies alike, and help facilitate loan restructuring effort, because at the end of the day, banks will suffer more if we lost the trust of our customers. We should learn from past crises, there will always be opportunities. Stick to purpose, play your respective part, be constructive and pragmatic, God willing, we will come out of this crisis stronger (and wiser).’ He said, ending the session.
‘It was an impactful session with strong speakers. There should be more events like this in the future.’ Said Zulhilmy Kamaruddin, Director, Group Client Coverage from RHB Investment Bank, as one of the participants.
For more information, contact Faizah Jaafar at +6019 399 7746 (faizah@wief.org) or follow WIEF Foundation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter for regular updates on future events and happenings. Visit us at www.wief.org.
About World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation
World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation was established in 2006. It is the organising body of the annual World Islamic Economic Forum. The Forum serves as a focal point where country leaders, captains of industry, emerging entrepreneurs, academics and other stakeholders from the Muslim World and beyond, meet to build bridges through business. The Foundation also undertakes various capacity building programmes under the WIEF initiatives of the Businesswomen Network (WBN), Young Leaders Network (WYN), Education Trust (WET) and Roundtable Series (WRT).
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About Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC)
SECURITIES INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (SIDC) is the training and development arm of Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). It was established in 1994 and incorporated in 2007.
SIDC has been a standard-bearer of quality and innovation for examinations, qualifications, talent development and capacity building for over two decades. Our mission is to raise the standard of capital market participants to support the rapid growth and development of the capital market industry through learning and development solutions, capacity building and professional certification, qualifications and continuous education. It also focuses on thought leadership, consultancy services and investor education for the capital market.
In moving with the digital age, SIDC develops and organises training programmes for Malaysian and foreign regulators, company directors and market professionals as well as conducts public investor education seminars through virtual and online platforms, in addition to its face-to-face programmes. Further, SIDC develops, maintains and administers the Securities Commission Licensing Examination (SCLE) as part of the licensing regime for Malaysian capital market intermediaries under the SC.
For more information, log on to www.sidc.com.my
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ROLE-PLAYER PROFILE
Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar
Chairman, Bursa Malaysia
Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar is Chairman of Bursa Malaysia Berhad and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). He served as Group Chairman of Permodalan Nasional Berhad, following completion of his term as a senator and minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of economic planning. He was President and CEO of Maybank which he transformed into a regional banking group as well as a global leader in Islamic finance. Prior to that, he was Group CEO of Telekom Malaysia Berhad until its demerger with Axiata Group Berhad and CEO of UEM Group Berhad. He is a member of various associations including ACCA, United Kingdom, and Malaysian Institute of Accountants.
Tan Sri Abdul Wahid has received numerous awards including Malaysia’s CEO of the Year 2006 award from Business Times/American Express, The Asian Banker’s 2013 Leadership Achievement Award for Malaysia and The Edge Value Creator award 2013. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in economy from Malaysia Multimedia University and another Honorary Doctorate in economy and muamalat administration by Islamic Science University of Malaysia, four years later. Currently, he serves as a trustee of WWF Malaysia, Professor of Practice at INCEIF and as a visiting fellow at Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in United Kingdom.
Peter Burns
Global Banking & Capital Markets Leader
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Australia
Peter Burns is a Partner with PwC Strategy and is based in Sydney. He has over 25 years of consulting experience and has broad based financial services expertise in retail banking, wholesale or institutional banking, wealth management and insurance. He has worked with business leaders throughout Australia, Asia Pacific, United Kingdom as well as the United States on corporate strategy, business model transformation and growth. He leads PwC’s global banking and capital markets practice, as well as PwC Southeast Asia Consulting Board of Directors.
Peter joined PwC with the acquisition of Booz & Co, where he was a member of the Booz & Co. board and subsequently, the shareholder committee. He has a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration where he was elected a George F. Baker Scholar. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Bond University where he was awarded the School of Business Scholarship.
Raja Teh Maimunah
Managing Director, Wholesale Banking
AmBank Group, Malaysia
Raja Teh Maimunah is the Managing Director of Wholesale Banking, AmBank Group and has 25 years of financial services experience covering investment banking, wholesale, Islamic and digital banking. After her early days at KPMG, she held various positions in the financial sector including CEO of AmInvestment Bank, Managing Director as well as CEO of Hong Leong Islamic Bank, COO of Digital Innovation and Transaction Banking at the Hong Leong Banking Group and Global Head of Islamic Markets at Bursa Malaysia. She was also in Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad and CIMB Investment Bank covering debt, equity origination as well as equity sales.
Raja Teh is a board member as well as a board risk committee member of Kumpulan Wang Persaraan. She is an adviser on Islamic banking and finance to WIEF Foundation. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of East London, United Kingdom. She sits on the committee of Pertubuhan Tindakan Wanita Islam (PERTIWI) and on the Board of Trustees of Picha Eats.