INTHEBLACK December 2021 - Magazine - Page 30
MEMBER PROFILE
// I N H I G H P L A C E S
Swift moved from PwC to Bank of
Singapore, now OCBC, and was soon
approached for the role of general manager
finance at Gas Malaysia. Within a year, at
the age of 32, he was promoted to CEO.
Subsequent leadership roles include the
top job at Malaysian Assurance Alliance,
now Zurich Insurance Malaysia, but
leading Bursa Malaysia presented an
opportunity that Swift says “doesn’t
come around too often”.
“It also came with the opportunity
to make changes,” says Swift.
“We’re moving from being predominately
a cash equities business and looking at
different asset classes. We’re also growing
our derivatives business.”
Bursa Malaysia is a profit-driven entity
and, like many exchanges, it is listed on
itself. It also plays the role of front-line
regulator to publicly listed companies.
“We’re regulated by the Securities
Commission,” says Swift. “We have an
overriding obligation to grow the capital
market and create that virtuous cycle, so
companies can raise capital and employ
people, pay tax, pay dividends. We’re also
an agency of the Ministry of Finance, so
we sit under government as well.
“We wear many hats, but the exchange
is a marketplace, and the market is only as
good as what you have for sale,” adds Swift.
“Clearly, for many listed companies, the
pandemic is challenging the profitability,
longevity and business principles in which
they operate.
“The key for us as an exchange – and
this is completely selfish – is we need to
get people back at work, buying goods and
services, buying shares in publicly listed
companies, so the whole economy can get
working again.”
CHANGING INVESTOR PROFILES
Malaysia entered the COVID-19 crisis from
a position of relative strength and, for the
first half of 2020, Bursa Malaysia was the
strongest-performing market among the
emerging markets in ASEAN.
Swift notes that, while Bursa Malaysia’s
capitalisation-weighted stock market index,
FBMKLCI, fell by 5.5 per cent in the first
30 ITB December 2021
Above: Datuk Muhamad
Umar Swift FCPA
outside the Bursa
Malaysia headquarters,
next to an installation
on the topic of the
Sustainable
Development Goals.
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half of 2020, other key markets in ASEAN
experienced larger declines of between
14 per cent and 22 per cent in terms of
their benchmark indices.
Although short-term investors and
speculators exited the market in 2020,
strategic and long-term investors stayed the
course, and foreign ownership of Malaysian
equities remained above 20 per cent.
Bursa Malaysia was also buoyed by a
significant increase in retail investors last year,
when retail participation reached a 10-year
high of 34.3 per cent. The RM14.3 billion
(A$4.7 billion) of net buying by local
retail investors for the year surpassed the