KUALA LUMPUR (June 23): Bursa Malaysia Bhd has introduced a new clearing-only function as part of its participantship structure to promote specialisation among intermediaries based on their capabilities.

This is to enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of the Malaysian derivatives market and to facilitate market development.

It made amendments to the participantship structure of Rules of Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Clearing Bhd (BMDC), as well as Rules of Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Bhd (BMD).

Under the revamped participantship structure, BMDC has decoupled clearing participantship from trading participantship to allow for standalone clearing participants.

In a statement today, Bursa said the structure enables large and well-capitalised financial institutions to come into the market as standalone clearing participants and provide third party clearing, which in turn promotes accessibility of Malaysian market to traders globally.

Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said, "This is an opportune time for Bursa Malaysia to further enhance the participantship structure to attract new intermediaries, including big financial institutions, to participate in the clearing of contracts traded on BMD."

"As Malaysia looks towards becoming a leading market in ASEAN, the revamp of the participantship structure is an important change to facilitate further growth and development of our derivatives market," he added.

Following the revamp of the participantship structure, the application fees for trading participants and associate participants of BMD have been abolished. The registration fee (formerly known as admission fee) for trading participants of BMD has been reduced from RM100,000 to RM50,000 to be on par with the registration fee for general clearing participants of BMDC.

The amendments to the Rules of BMD and the Rules of BMDC on the revamped participantship structure have been approved by the Securities Commission Malaysia.