GEORGE TOWN, Aug 19 — The federal government will decide whether the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) should regulate Lembaga Tabung Haji’s (TH) fund management and investments, SC chairman Datuk Mohammad Faiz Azmi said today.

He said the proposal was among recommendations made by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) and is being examined by a task force involving Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and TH.

“However, the decision rests with the government. We only follow instructions,” he told reporters after attending the “Powering SemiCons: Financing Your Next Breakthrough” event here.

Mohammad Faiz said the task force was discussing the RCI’s proposals to determine which could be implemented.

“If the government considers it appropriate, we will implement it,” he said.

“For now, there is a task force with Bank Negara and TH to discuss the RCI’s recommendations, and we will implement whichever is appropriate,” he added.

Earlier, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Zulkifli Hassan said the SC had been proposed as the regulator for TH’s fund management and investment activities, as part of efforts to strengthen the institution’s oversight framework.

Mohammad Faiz said such oversight was appropriate given the scale of TH’s investments.

“TH is an agency with very large investments, so it should indeed be regulated,” he said.

On syariah compliance, he said the RCI had also proposed a dedicated syariah committee for TH, similar to those established by Islamic banks.

”The RCI’s recommendation is to establish a syariah committee like the one in every Islamic bank,” 

“This would assure depositors that their investments are genuinely syariah-compliant,” he said.  He described the proposal as a sound one and said he hoped TH would establish the committee.