KUALA LUMPUR (May 24): The Malaysian Financial Planning Council (MFPC) said that it has no intention to raise its grouses about certain cash trusts to DAP National Public Complaints Bureau chairman and member of parliament for Kepong, Lim Lip Eng, as it had already brought the issue to the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).
It was previously reported by theedgemarkets.com on Tuesday (May 24) that members of the Investor Protection Group (IPG) were to bring forward their qualms on certain cash trusts to Lim in a meeting to be held on Wednesday (May 25).
However, in response to the report, the MFPC — a member of the IPG — said while it was invited to the meeting, the pre-scheduled meeting has been cancelled.
The council added that it had no intentions to raise its “grouses” about certain cash trusts in the meeting.
“We wish to highlight that the Council, together with the other financial planning associations (IPG) are invitees to a meeting with Lim on May 25, 2022.
“We wish to categorically state that we have no intention to bring out 'grouses' about certain cash trusts as cited by your article. We do not know how and where this information originated from; nonetheless, to correspond with your article published [on Tuesday], the pre-scheduled meeting has been cancelled,” the MFPC said in an email to The Edge.
The MFPC noted that it has raised the cash trust issue with both the SC and BNM, and has been in active communications with the regulator and the central bank through the IPG.
Likewise, the Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM) told The Edge that it would not be participating in the meeting with Lim, as it has already brought the cash trust issue to the attention of the regulators concerned.
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), MFPC, Malaysian Financial Planning and Advisors Association (MFPAA) and the FPAM, through the SC, jointly formed the IPG.
According to the MFPC, the key objectives of the IPG are:
- To centralize the assessment of doubtful activities within the industry, so as to guide LFPs on the treatment of such activities;
- To update SC with prevailing doubtful financial services activities/products and unlicensed persons, with some recommended action items, if possible;
- To follow up with regulators and relevant stakeholders on the status of action taken;
- Where possible, to work with Industry Associations to distribute information/warn the public about the doubtful activities/products; and
- To seek guidance from, and work with SC to educate the public on doubtful financial services activities and unlicensed persons.
“Through this group, all members of the associations will be made aware of the addition of names of companies on the Investor Alert List and where possible, for any member of the association to provide immediate feedback to this group, so that we could alert the authorities promptly,” it added.
The MFPC said that via this industry initiative, the IPG aims to provide an avenue for members to bring all potential fraudulent investment schemes to the attention of the regulators, in order to avoid members of the public from falling prey to such fraudulent investments.
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