Securities Commission Malaysia issues revised Guidelines on Islamic Capital Market Products and Services

25 May 2026

On 30 March 2026, the Securities Commission Malaysia (“SC”) revised the Guidelines on Islamic Capital Market Products and Services (“Guidelines”) to, among others:

• enhance the roles, responsibilities, and continuous obligations of Registered Shariah Advisers (“RSAs”);
• clarify the non-applicability of certain requirements for Islamic Capital Market (“ICM”) products and services offered by recognised market operators;
• introduce new requirements in relation to the offering of ICM products and services on Digital Asset Exchange (“DAX”) operators; and
• implement changes in the date of annual declaration submissions by RSAs.

The key amendments include the following:

• Requiring an RSA to give consideration to align the ICM product and service with the principles of Maqasid Al-Shariah Guidance Islamic Capital Market Malaysia issued by the SC, and to disclose this in the Shariah pronouncement;
• Requiring prompt notification to the SC by an individual Shariah adviser who no longer fulfils the fit and proper criteria or, in the case of a Shariah adviser which is a corporation, if the corporation, its directors, senior management or Shariah officer are no longer fit and proper;
• Expanding the non-applicability of the requirement to appoint an RSA to other market operators whose activity is limited to facilitating secondary trading of ICM products that have been certified as Shariah-compliant by an RSA; and
• Requiring DAX operators which offer Shariah-compliant digital currency on their platforms to obtain the endorsement of the Shariah Advisory Council prior to such offering.