Bursa Malaysia's Leading Entrepreneur Accelerator Platform (LEAP) Market, a new qualified market which offers an alternative for SMEs to raise funds and grow their business to the next level, was officially launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at Invest Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 2017 here today.

The Prime Minister said the launch of the LEAP Market is in line with the government’s SME Masterplan, which aims to raise the share of gross domestic product contributed by SMEs, their number of employees, and their export volume.

CIMB Investment Bank Berhad has, yet again, proven its leadership in the investment banking space by maintaining its long standing top positions for Malaysian bond, equities and Ringgit Sukuk arranger, as well as for ASEAN local currency bonds for the first half of 2017 (“1H2017”). CIMB was also in the top two positions for Global Sukuk league table for the same period.

For 12 consecutive years, CIMB has topped Bloomberg’s Underwriter League Table for Malaysian Ringgit Bonds, having garnered 32.28% of the Malaysian Ringgit Bond market share with 60 issuances totalling RM16.16 billion in 1H2017. CIMB also led Bloomberg’s Malaysian Ringgit Sukuk, with a market share of 30.56% amounting to RM11.13 billion, and maintained its dominance in the ASEAN local currency bonds - for the sixth consecutive year - with a 14.26% market share on the back of 152 issuances worth USD5.45 billion for the same period.

Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC), the learning and development arm of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), today introduces a new Industry Competency Framework (ICF) to provide universal guidance for competency capabilities for capital market professionals. The move aims to further enhance competitiveness of the industry in view of the changing global landscape.

SIDC CEO, Sharifatul Hanizah Said Ali said, “ICF is timely not only to address the industry’s talent gap but also to cater for possible future challenges by enhancing organisational capabilities. Designed to drive sustainable performance by empowering current professionals and employees in the industry, it functions as a useful tool for assessing competencies for career mobility and progression in the capital market.”