MEDIA RELEASE
14 February 2025
ASEAN Capital Markets Forum Continues to Facilitate Regional Growth through Sustainable, Resilient and Inter-connected Capital Markets
The ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) successfully held its 42nd Chairs’ Meeting yesterday hosted by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), in historic Penang, Malaysia.
At yesterday’s meeting, endorsed the Strategic Thrusts and a set of Key Principles for the upcoming ACMF Action Plan 2026-2030 (AP2026). The AP2026, which is targeted for release in October 2025, will be a new five-year roadmap aimed at further developing ASEAN capital markets, following the conclusion of the current ACMF Action Plan 2021-2025 (AP2021). The new AP2026 will build on the successes of the AP2021 and will be developed in collaboration with member states, seeking feedback and views from a range of stakeholders, and leveraging subject matter resources. This will ensure that the Action Plan is comprehensive and keeps pace with capital market trends.
ACMF Chairs also welcomed a new technical assistance collaboration with the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) to develop a Carbon Market Ecosystem Roadmap. The ACMF is also exploring technical assistance collaboration to develop a Mitigation, Adaptation, Resilience and Sustainable Finance (MARS) Framework to boost the region’s climate adaptation finance measures.
The Meeting also took note of updates in relation to initiatives under the ASEAN Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) Framework, particularly on (a) Harmonization of Disclosure Standards, and (b) Revision of MoU & Standards of Qualifying CIS.
On the capacity building front, the ACMF welcomed an update on a Governance, Stewardship, and Sustainability Capacity Building Event which was held on 3 December 2024 in Hanoi, Vietnam, as well as new secondments under the ASEAN Young Regulators (AYR) Programme to MAS and the internal capacity building activities held by the ACMF Market Development Programme in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Alongside this, the ACMF also took note of revisions to the timelines of the 2024 ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) Assessment.
The Meeting also noted promising developments in the work on sustainability related disclosures and acknowledged efforts to continually engage and collaborate with the IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). As part of those efforts, the Meeting was party to presentations from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), and had a high-level dialogue with the ISSB under the ACMF-IFRS Foundation Dialogue on IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (AID) protocol. Other updates on planned technical trainings and initiatives aimed at broadening the understanding of how to measure and disclose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as implementation of disclosure requirements in the ISSB Standards were also approved.
In addition, the Meeting took note of progress made on the ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance, Version 3 of which was made effective on 20 December 2024. The Meeting also heard progress updates on the Asia Green Transformation Consortium (Asia GX Consortium), a partnership with the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan, the ASEAN Working Committee on Capital Market Development (WC-CMD), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and various private industry participants.
The ACMF also noted the continued information sharing among members on developments, policies and regulatory frameworks for digital assets, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Thailand and SC both sharing their experiences on licensing and supervision of digital assets.
The ACMF also thanked the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Sustainable Finance Institute Asia (SFIA) and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) for its support and providing its technical assistance, expertise, resources, and network, to enable ACMF to continue making significant progress towards ASEAN sustainable capital markets and other initiatives.
Note-to-Editors
About the ACMF
The ACMF is a high-level grouping of capital market regulators from all 10 ASEAN jurisdictions, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The ACMF is currently chaired by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SCM).
More information on the ACMF and its initiatives can be found on the ACMF website at www.theacmf.org.
For media queries, please contact:
Securities Commission Malaysia
Members of the Media may contact Ms. Delyana Nordin at delyanan@seccom.com.my, or Ms. Nur Aina Farhani Mohamad Nassrudin at ainan@seccom.com.my.
