KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 — The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has placed 40 operators comprising entities and related individuals on its Investor Alert List for carrying out the business of investment advice without a licence.

Twenty-three 23 operators were directed to cease and desist from undertaking all activities in relation to unlicensed investment advice, the commission said in its Annual Report 2021 released today.

In 2021, it also made 275 new entries in the SC Investor Alert List compared to 134 entries in 2020, warning the public against dealing or investing in unlicensed activities and scams.

These were followed by media announcements and postings on the SC’s InvestSmart® social media channels to ensure a wider reach to the public.

In addition, the SC, with the assistance from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), has blocked 143 websites found to be carrying out unlicensed activities, scams, and misusing the SC’s name and logo.

Further, the capital market regulator also received assistance from Facebook Malaysia to geo-block 35 Facebook accounts.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF), Bank Negara Malaysia, and the SC achieved a new milestone in July 2021 with the formation of a Consumer Credit Oversight Board (CCOB) Task Force, which is responsible for driving inter-Ministry efforts to enact the Consumer Credit Act (CCA).

The CCOB, as a new independent conduct authority under the MoF, will have oversight of all consumer credit activities, starting with providers who are currently unregulated.

Concurrently, BNM and the SC are also conducting a feasibility study on the potential consolidation of conduct supervision for all intermediaries in the financial industry under a new integrated conduct authority. — Bernama