This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 17, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) is lifting fundraising limits on equity crowdfunding (ECF) platforms, and allowing ECF and peer-to-peer financing (P2P) schemes to operationalise secondary trading, with immediate effect.

This is in view of increasing interest among micro, small and medium enterprises to tap into alternative fundraising channels, the SC said in a statement yesterday in conjunction with the release of the its 2019 annual report.

The regulator also said that from now until Sept 30, the Malaysia Co-Investment Fund (MyCIF), which is administered by the SC, has increased its funding matching ratio from 1:4 to 1:2 for eligible ECF and P2P campaigns, to provide additional liquidity into the alternative fundraising space.

“The SC also called upon the industry to seize the opportunity to accelerate its digitisation transformations and offer more online products and services to investors, as the regulator observed a significant increase of new online trading accounts opening in recent months.

“The SC itself, in view of this new norm, will expedite guidelines for holding virtual general meetings. The SC will also review the Rules on Takeovers and Mergers to facilitate e-service of documents and compliance with regulatory requirements for takeover and merger transactions.

“The regulator is also working on efforts to broaden the suite of product offerings of fund management industry, through facilitating the introduction of waqaf-based collective investment schemes and alternative investments for wholesale funds, where underlying assets can be property, gold or private equity,” the commission said.