This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 14, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyer Datuk Syed Zaid Syed Jaffar Albar has joined the list of names being bandied about to replace Tan Sri Ranjit Ajit Singh as executive chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC).

Sources told The Edge Financial Daily that Syed Zaid has a high chance of landing the chairman role due to his legal background, with over 37 years in active legal practice.

Utusan Malaysia over the weekend named Datuk Ahmad Azman Abdul Manaf as one of the possible contenders for the top job at the SC. He is currently the managing director and chief executive of stockbroking firm SJ Securities Sdn Bhd.

According to Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd’s Annual Report 2017 where Syed Zaid is an independent non-executive director of the company, Syed Zaid graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Law in the UK and qualified as a Barrister-at-Law from Lincoln’s Inn.

Syed Zaid, 63, was called to the Malaysian Bar as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in 1980 and he has been in active legal practice ever since. He is the managing partner and founding partner of law firm Albar & Partners in Kuala Lumpur.

Syed Zaid also holds directorships in Malaysia Building Society Bhd and Yinson Holdings Bhd.

Rumours of Ranjit’s impending SC exit marks the latest in a string of high-profile exits since the Pakatan Harapan coalition took over as the federal government on May 9.

These included the resignations of Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim, Federal Land Development Authority chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad, Lembaga Tabung Haji chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and Permodalan Nasional Bhd group chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar.

Ranjit was appointed as chairman of the commission on April 1, 2012, replacing Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar. In April last year, his tenure was extended for a further three years. He was previously managing director of the SC and has extensive experience in the field of finance and securities market regulation.

Trained as a financial economist and accountant, Ranjit served the regulatory body as early as 1994 in areas of market supervision and oversight, strategy and risk management, financial policy and economics, and was at one point made managing director.