- Key government sites
- Regulatory agencies and stock exchanges
- Pension and investment funds
- Accounting and auditing sites
- Shareholder organisations
- Professional organisations
- Miscellaneous
1. Key government sites
Ministry of Finance (Treasury Malaysia): www.treasury.gov.my
The Ministry's site is easy to traverse but not always guaranteed to give you the information you are looking for, e.g. the Ministry's profile offers only the faces of past and present Ministers of Finance, Secretary Generals of the Treasury, and the Ministry Chart. It is a site that is more geared to the Treasury department, which provides visitors an overview of its mission and objectives. The website carries little current information, while circulars, reports, and most of the speeches are in Bahasa. There is no search engine, except an interactive one for Treasury circulars. A site that needs updating.
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM): www.bnm.gov.my
Malaysia’s central bank. An up-to-date website that provides economic and financial data on Malaysia’s economy, currency and financial system. The site includes searchable sections on press releases, speeches, statistical reports and publications, which are mostly for sale. While the statistics and hyperlinks pages are excellent, the site does have holes: not all the sections, such as regulations, are readily available from the home page unless you open the sitemap; and they are not always complete.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC): www.sprm.gov.my
MACC was established with the passing of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2008, and officially began operations on January 1, 2009 replacing the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) Malaysia. The links at the bottom of the English website, such as academic references, does not seem to work. There is information about the agency, how and when it was formed, and its activities throughout the year. There is also a chart showing the arrest statistics for the year and a database of offenders.
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2. Regulatory agencies and stock exchanges
Securities Commission (SC): sc.com.my
Malaysia’s primary securities regulator. A fast, clean, up-to-date and easy-to-navigate site. It provides a lot of information on the operations of the SC, a useful resources section with press releases, speeches, publications and statistics and data, and an excellent search engine. In addition, there is a comprehensive section on corporate governance, which gives an overview of corporate governance in the country and SC's involvement. A unique feature under the enforcement sub-section is the "wanted" list of people SC is either looking to charge, need assistance from, or as a witness. The site also includes a section on training and education.
Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia, Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM): www.ssm.gov.my
The website covers a great deal of useful information including the company director's and the company secretary's codes of ethics, which can be found in the guidelines section; and a section on the corporate law reform committee, established in 2003 to review the current legislative policies on corporate law and propose amendments. However, no search engine is provided except a "Name Search" to locate registered companies in Malaysia; and some of the icons provided are broken.
Bursa Malaysia (KLSE): www.klse.com
Bursa Malaysia is the new name for the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. A comprehensive site with detailed, up-to-date information, including data on listed companies, trading and settlement, listing and market participants. There is also an education section that details the modules for the mandatory training courses for directors of Malaysian listed companies.
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3. Pension and investment funds
Employees Provident Fund (EPF): www.kwsp.gov.my
EPF is a savings scheme for Malaysians' retirement operated by the Malaysian Government. The website is simple and easy to navigate, and while the information focuses on EPF, its functions and organisation, the homepage does carry news items on fund management and an archive section. The search engine is good, and it is easier to find information by using it.
Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB): www.pnb.com.my
PNB is the investment organisation set up by the Government to promote share ownership in the corporate sector among the Bumiputera. The website is brochureware, providing visitors with information about the PNB, its history, functions, organisation, and the courses that it offers to the public.
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3. Accounting and Auditing sites
Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB): www.masb.org.my
The MASB, together with the Financial Reporting Foundation (FRF), are responsible for the new framework for financial reporting in Malaysia. The MASB is responsible for developing and setting accounting and financial reporting standards in Malaysia, while FRF is responsible for overseeing MASB’s performance, financial and funding arrangement, and as an initial source of views for the MASB on proposed standards and pronouncements. A well-organised website that is easy to navigate, and provides a wealth of information on the organisation and operation of the MASB and FRF, current accounting standards and principles, and ones that are under review. One small problem is that the search engine, which is fairly efficient, can only be accessed from the homepage.
Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA): www.micpa.com.my
This website is focused primarily on members with restricted access to public users. In addition to describing the organisation and operation of MICPA, the site includes sections with news and events, and a links page, but not all the links are active. A publications section, providing detailed accounting and financial reporting standards is available, but only for sale.
Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA): www.mia.org.my
An up-to-date site, with a good resources centre section containing speeches, circulars and research papers. There are also useful sections covering continuing professional education, and technical issues relating to accounting, auditing taxation and corporate insolvency law. However, it is not easy to navigate, certain sections do not allow you to return to the homepage unless you repeatedly hit the back button key.
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4. Shareholder organisations
Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG): www.mswg.org.my
MSWG, established in 2000 after a recommendation by the Ministry of Finance in 1999, is a public company that aims
to "enhance shareholder activism and protect minority interests". The website hosts an array of information but it is not always easy to find it, and currently the search engine is under development. While a site map exists, it does not make the task any easier. A link to Malaysia's Code of Corporate Governance is available, but it is found under "Our History". An "In the News" archive section provides visitors with a list of MSWG's "abstracts of market surveys, research papers, and magazine and newspaper
articles of interest to minority shareholders" but only the title of the article, where to find it, and when it was published is available. This website has just been launched and is obviously still a work-in-progress.
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5. Professional organisations
Malaysian Bar Council (MBC): www.malaysianbar.org.my
The MBC website is well designed and is an excellent resource for information on the legal profession and issues in Malaysia. In addition to a detailed section on the functions and organisation of the MBC itself, the website provides updates to legislation, numerous articles to promote public awareness on their rights and remedies in given situations, and links to the websites of the other bar associations.
The Malaysian Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (MICSA): www.maicsa.org
The MICSA website is easy to navigate and provides information relating to the organisation as well as industry information and data. The site offers extensive resources including links to corporate governance sites both within and outside Malaysia, technical and research sites and updates, training and education programmes, library information and publications.
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6. Miscellaneous
Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG): www.micg.net
MICG was established in 1998 by the High Level Finance Committee on Corporate Governance. The site affords a thorough overview of MICG, its work, research, publications and events it is involved in. However, other than one downloadable research paper on corporate governance in Malaysia, there was little else pertaining to continuing research, although all MICG's publications on CG are available for sale online. An interesting section is the page on CG codes and best practices from around the world, which are downloadable. In addition, the "Links" page is quite comprehensive.
Federation of Publicly Listed Companies (FPLC): www.fplc.com.my
FPLC is an organisation that aims to develop Malaysian companies towards global standards; it was responsible for introducing a Code of Ethics for public listed companies in 1989. Its website is well designed and easy to navigate, but the corporate section is devoid of useful material, but the members' portal aims to provide information on corporate governance, corporate social responsibility as well as recent salient updates on accounting, legal and regulatory issues affecting Malaysian listed companies.
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