Kuala Lumpur, 15 December – The Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA) and the Securities Industry Dispute Resolution Center (SIDREC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen and increase the degree of cooperation and dialogue between the two organisations. The agreement was sealed by KLRCA’s Director, Datuk Professor Sundra Rajoo and Chairman of SIDREC, Dato’ Ranita Mohd Hussein during a ceremony held at KLRCA’s prestigious Sulaiman Building. Attending as the Guest of Honour was Dato’ Dr. Nik Ramlah the Deputy Chief Executive of Securities Commission Malaysia.

The MoU signed is focused on establishing collaboration between the institutions to further their mutual objectives in the promotion of the use of alternate dispute resolution relating to capital market products and services disputes in Malaysia and the region.

The agreement will also see SIDREC set up a representative office at KLRCA’s premises to better facilitate the promotion of SIDREC’s services and of any collaborative efforts with KLRCA. This includes jointly organizing seminars, conferences and educational programmes towards building  awareness and capacity in specialised dispute resolution expertise for capital market disputes.

The Signing of the MoU was followed by a keynote speech by Mr. Shane Tregillis, Chief Ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service  Australia and a panel discussion on the increasing importance and need for a specialised alternative dispute resolution avenue for financial markets. Also attending as a special guest was the President of the Bar Council, Mr. Steven Thiruneelakandan.

Sujatha Sekhar Naik, Chief Executive Officer of SIDREC commented, “We are through this mandate able to draw together our experience, understanding of regulatory expectations, of industry best practice together with an insight on challenges faced by both investors and our members, to provide an informed dispute resolution service – one that is without an attachment to the outcome and as such both independent and impartial.

Professor Datuk Sundra Rajoo, Director of KLRCA added, “When organisations have similar goals at heart, it only makes sense to forge strategic collaborations and partnerships to further accelerate and elevate efforts towards a particular committed cause; which in this case is the betterment of the local and regional alternative dispute resolution platform relating to capital market products and services”.

Dato Ranita Mohd Hussein, Chairman of SIDREC concluded, “In addition to our increased claim limit of RM250,000, SIDREC now provides mediation for higher claims for investors and members who agree to use its services”. Therein lies the potential to look to the provision of specialised arbitration for capital market disputes. In exploring this, we are open, where appropriate, to working with partners such as KLRCA, to leverage off the available expertise, without, of course, compromising the priorities of our role as mandated under the law”.

Mr. Shane Tregillis, in his keynote noted that “Recognition of alternative dispute resolution as a key element in the regulatory and consumer protection framework by global standard setting bodies is an important milestone in the development in financial sector alternative dispute resolution.  I consider the development of specialist financial sector dispute resolution schemes to be one of the major regulatory and finance industry success stories over the last 20 years.”