Description

Arising from a focus on the investing and shareholding practices of institutional investors, stewardship codes have been introduced in the UK and Malaysia. This presentation evaluates the theoretical and practical issues relating to the relatively recent phenomenon of stewardship of institutional investors in Malaysia through functional and contextual lenses, as juxtaposed against the more established practice of stewardship in the UK. It is argued that notwithstanding a similar legal framework for shareholder rights and substantial similarities with regard to the content of the UK Stewardship Code and the Malaysian Code for Institutional Investors and its status as soft law, the market structure and political economic factors which are unique to Malaysia represent a constraint on the effectiveness of the Malaysian Code for Institutional Investors in shaping the practices of institutional investors in Malaysia. As such, recommendations for reform would need to take into account both common theoretical and unique contextual constraints.

About The Speaker

Petrina Tan is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for Banking & Finance Law, NUS since November 2017. She was previously a corporate lawyer, Federal Counsel in the Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia, Senior Manager in the Regulatory Policy & Advisory division of the Malaysian stock exchange, Bursa Malaysia, and sessional tutor at Monash University Malaysia School of Business.

Petrina was awarded an LL.B (Hons)(With Distinction) degree from the University of Malaya, equivalent to a First Class Honours degree in 2007. Among other prizes, she won the Rajasooria book prize for best LL.B student overall and the Haseenah Abdoolcader gold medal for best final examination results. She received the NUS Graduate Scholarship for ASEAN Nationals to further her studies at NUS, where she graduated with an LL.M (Corporate & Financial Services Law) and won the KhattarWong prize for best result in Securities Regulation in 2011.