The UK has welcomed the liberalisation of Malaysian financial services and is eager to utilise Malaysian expertise.
The issuance of five new legal licences for international law firms in Islamic finance has been an important liberalisation measure in the region.
Alderman Ian Luder, the Lord Mayor of London, said that Britain and Malaysia had a history of collaboration in the Islamic finance field.
“We are particularly keen to follow this up by working with Malaysia in areas such as professional exchanges between Islamic finance staff, experts and student and joint education programmes,” he said in his speech at the Malaysia-UK Islamic Finance Forum this week.
Another measure is Bank Negara’s move to raise foreign ownership limits of local Islamic banks, investment banks and insurance companies from 49% to 70%.
Luder said, “We also believe we should work together on policy exchanges and mutual recognition of standards, and we are very keen to work with your expertise in developing the market.”
Malaysia announced extensive economic liberalisation measures in June to attract foreign investment.
One of the most significant moves was to change a requirement that ethnic Malay investors must hold a combined 30% stake in listed companies. The quota was cut to 12.5% and could be further reduced if companies later issue more shares. Foreign companies seeking a listing on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange are excluded from the quota system.
”The world is changing quickly and we must be ready to change with it or risk being left behind,” said Prime Minister Najib Razak concerning the reforms at an investment conference in Kuala Lumpur last month.
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