Bursa Malaysia opens public consultation for ETF review

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd has issued a consultation paper to seek public feedback on the proposed review of Main Market Listing Requirements and Rules and Directives of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad in relation to Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF).
The stock exchange regulator said that the public consultation period will run between July 9 to July 23.
The proposed amendments tail the release of key recommendations made by a task force comprising the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), Bursa Malaysia and other market participants in 2017.
The task force had given various recommendations, aimed at attracting greater investor participation in ETFs and incentivising issuances by ETF managers in the Malaysian market.
The proposed recommendations includes the liberalising of the interim reporting frequency from quarterly to semi-annual basis, enhancing the contents of ETF interim and annual reports arising from various new ETF products and their specific requirements; and enhancing the immediate announcement requirements to promote greater transparency in relation to the index or benchmark tracked by the ETF.
“Consequential to this as well, the rules and directives of Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd will be amended to introduce the qualifying criteria for investors of inverse ETFs, and to expand the permitted short selling framework to allow Market Makers to short sell all types of ETF units. Presently, the PSS framework allows for Market Makers to short sell equity-based ETFs only,” said Bursa Malaysia.