Asia Financial Services

Malaysia has long lacked a formal third pillar to its pension system. While the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is well established and has operated successfully even under the most trying of circumstances, it is seen as inadequate in terms of providing replacement income for the country’s ageing population, and for a population that is living...

With business increasing and consolidation proceeding apace, the insurance sector in Malaysia has been on a steady growth path for a number of years. It has been tracking general economic expansion, while at the same time benefitting from increased awareness, improved marketing and general and insurance-specific reforms. The sector is also...

The Islamic financial services (IFS) sector has been growing rapidly in Malaysia in recent years. As a result of government promotion, increased interest among both Muslims and non-Muslims, heightened awareness of the benefits of Islamic finance and improved regulation, sharia-compliant financial products have been gaining on conventional...

The country has long sought to become a global leader in Islamic finance services (IFS), and it has built up its sector to encourage international transactions and foreign investment and participation. While it has always been ranked highly in terms of business, it has generally been viewed more as a local market and less of an international...

Despite the traditional dominance of banks in providing debt finance, the Malaysian private equity (PE) industry is now gaining traction as an alternative source of capital for high-growth companies.

While the possibility of loose monetary policy ending in the US raised concerns in the Malaysian markets, 2013 turned out to be a strong year for new offerings and for the benchmark index. In the end, the effects of changes in the US were not as pronounced as feared and money flowed into Malaysia from elsewhere; 2014 also started on a good...