LABUAN Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA) has reassured its stakeholders and the general marketplace that changes to its personnel will in no way impact its day to day operations as a well-managed, regulated and supervised jurisdiction.

The regulator in a statement yesterday assured its licence holders, intermediaries and advisors of its continued operations and the jurisdiction it regulates, namely the Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IBFC), without any changes to the latter’s operating environment and its policy stance.

“Measures have been put in place for succession in management, as evidenced by the appointment of Datuk Iskandar Mohd Nuli as acting DG.

“In addition, authority members will actively support the management of Labuan FSA during this transitional phase.

“There will be no changes to the senior management of the regulator, allowing for business continuity. “There will also be no changes to its market development subsidiary

Labuan IBFC Inc, which will continue to work with stakeholders towards ensuring the continued growth of the jurisdiction,” the statement read.

It said authority members and management of Labuan FSA are in constant liaison with the Finance Ministry (MoF) during this interim period, in particular towards the appointment of the next DG and chairman of the authority.

Labuan FSA is a statutory body under MoF and is responsible for the development and administration of the Labuan IBFC.

“Labuan FSA would like to reassure its more than 800 licence holders of the continued cultivation of a progressive, proportionate and robust industry, providing a facilitative efficient platform for cross border financial services.

“Labuan IBFC, which has been in existence for more than three decades will continue to function as the preferred mid-shore wholesale financial intermediation centre for Asia,” the regulator stated.

Labuan FSA chairman and DG made a surprise move to step down recently before completing their contracts, which were due to run until 2023.

The regulator previously announced its chairman Datuk Azizan Abdul Rahman had sub- mitted his resignation, which took effect on April 12. Azizan’s resignation came three day after Datuk Danial Mah Abdullah bowed out as DG on April 9.

No reasons were given for the resignations. Iskandar will helm the role of DG in the interim period, pending the appointment of a new DG.

Azizan was appointed as chairman of Labuan FSA from Nov 1, 2020, to Oct 31, 2023, following his retirement as DG of Labuan FSA in 2011.

Danial Mah’s involvement in the Labuan FSA (then Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority or LOFSA) dates back to 1997, where he served as deputy DG before being appointed as DG in 2017 for a three-year term until 2020. His contract was later extended for another three years. — TMR