MALAYSIA - CAPITAL MARKETS - Bursa Malaysia losing its glitter

www.thesundaily.com - PETALING JAYA (June 25, 2012): Once considered the third-largest market in Asia after Tokyo and Hong Kong during the 1990s, Bursa Malaysia now needs to do more or risk falling further behind its competitors, analysts warned.
They said it's not enough to pay lip service to the goal of developing Bursa Malaysia into an attractive and competitive exchange in the region, but not act on it.
"In the early 1990s, Bursa Malaysia (then known as Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange) used to be on par with Singapore's stock exchange (in terms of vibrancy). Back then, volume in the Singapore stock market was very much dependent on Malaysia when investors in Singapore were allowed to trade Malaysian shares on the CLOB (Central Limit Order Book system) market," said an analyst.  (source)

MALAYSIA - TAX - Tax incentives for Sukuk in Malaysia

cpifinancial.net  - Malaysia’s 2012 Budget is to offer incentives boost Islamic finance, extending tax breaks on Sukuk issuance for a further three-year period

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said a tax deduction on expenses incurred for Sukuk Wakala will be given for a three-year period from 2012 to encourage more Sukuk issuances. Najib said, "The income tax exemption given for non-ringgit Sukuk issuance and transaction is extended for another three years until the year of assessment 2014." (source)

MALAYSIA - CAPITAL MARKETS - Sukuk market set to break 1 trillion-ringgit barrier in Malaysia

The total Malaysian Islamic capital market (ICM) is projected to reach almost three trillion ringgit, RM2.88 trillion to be precise, in the year 2020, with the sukuk market set to break the one trillion-ringgit barrier to account for RM1.33 trillion worth of issuances and the market capitalization of Shariah-compliant companies accounting for RM1.55 trillion. (source)

WORLD - IDB governors demand urgent action on IF promotion

The 36th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) which concluded on June 30 in Jeddah disappointingly came up with no life-changing resolutions perhaps at a time when many of its member countries are experiencing crucial challenges to their political and economic governance. (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - MALAYSIA - M'sia's capital markets to double to S$1.9 trillion by 2020: Najib

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's capital markets are expected to more than double in size to RM4.5 trillion (S$1.9 trillion) by 2020, Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday as he announced a new 10-year blueprint to boost competitiveness.

"With greater internationalisation, this figure could increase to as much as RM5.8 trillion over the same period," Mr Najib said in his keynote address at the Invest Malaysia conference, an annual gathering of Malaysia's top corporate leaders. (full story)

FINANCE - Malaysian bankers push for Islamic finance to guide banking reforms

LONDON, Oct 8 — The push for reforms to the global financial sector after the recent crisis would gain from studying the principles of Islamic finance, according to leading bankers from Malaysia, the premier hub for this sector.

CIMB group chief executive Datuk Seri Nazir Razak (picture) and Bank Muamalat chairman Tan Sri Munir Majid spearheaded a panel discussion on Islamic banking at the World Muslim Leadership Forum that detailed how the principles of strict collateral, profit and risk-sharing and real economic activity that underpin Islamic financial transactions would help to bring in the required ethics and into conventional financing where sub-prime financing was seen as a leading cause of the global collapse of the last three years.