By NUR HAZIQAH A MALEK / Pic By MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

THE Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has issued the Guiding Principles on Business Continuity to improve the capital market’s systemic resiliency, especially in the event of major disruptions.

In a statement yesterday, the SC said the principles set out its expectations of the business continuity management approach by capital market entities to ensure critical services’ continuity and fulfilment of business obligations.

“A comprehensive business continuity management approach will also help to mitigate any possibility of wider systemic risk implications to the capital market, taking into consideration the rapidly changing landscape of the market,” it said.

The SC added that the principles, which were developed in close consultations with the industry, highlighted six focus areas.

The six areas are board and senior management’s responsibility in ensuring sound and effective business continuity protocol; the importance of risk identification, in particular interdependency and concentration risks; risk-based recovery strategy; annual testing of business continuity protocols; comprehensive escalation procedures and communication plans in the event of major disruptions; and ongoing review of business continuity arrangements.

“Capital market entities are encouraged to adopt and implement these principles, which serve as best practices, taking into account the nature, size and complexity of their business operations,” the regulator said.