KALEON Leong has, in a way, achieved a "Grand Slam" - although he is more a Chelsea football club supporter than a tennis fan - as he has worked in all five key stakeholders in the unit trust industry.
He started out as an auditor early in his career and has worked his way up to chief executive officer of the Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia (FIMM), an appointment he has held since Oct 1, 2018.
A chartered accountant who holds a Bachelor of Accounting degree from the International Islamic University Malaysia as well as a Masters degree in information technology from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Kaleon's first job was with PricewaterhouseCoopers from May 1996 to June 1999 where he got to audit unit trust funds and the companies that manage the funds.
Subsequently he joined the Securities Commission for five years.
From 2004 to 2006 he was the head of finance and portfolio services at AmInvestment Management Sdn Bhd.
Between 2006 and 2007, he was chief operating officer of HSBC Trustee Malaysia. After that he rejoined SC's Investment Management Supervision department from 2007 to 2014.
In all the different organisations he had worked in, Kaleon gained insights on different perspective of unit trust funds - regulation, submissions, product launch, fiduciary, marketing and strategy, among others.
"I've always wanted to work in all these organisations and I'm fortunate to have achieved this. Funny thing is what really set me on this path was in one of the job interviews I had attended, the interviewer had asked me whether I like unit trusts. My answer was, "I love unit trusts."… and I've been "stuck" here ever since.
"Back in the 90s, unit trusts and mutual funds were already well spoken of. I was keen to learn and it was and still is something that I am very passionate about. What I love most about unit trust is that it is a very dynamic industry," he said.
Unit trust funds continue to be the largest component of the Malaysian Collective Investment Scheme industry. As of April 2022, there are 41 locally-incorporated management companies approved to offer 751 unit trust funds with total net asset value (NAV) of RM514 billion.
"During the pandemic, the FIMM saw a surge in the number of new consultants. There were about 8,000 new consultants. Some of them were from industries that were highly mpacted by the pandemic. We hope to continuously contribute towards providing job opportunities and being a unit trust consultant does offer the opportunity to participate in the capital market sphere" Kaleon said.
"Such interest in learning more about the unit trust industry is evident by the high number of aspiring consultant candidates, where we had 18,000 candidates (target: 15,000) registering for our examinations in 2021. With focus on the gig economy, working as a unit trust and private retirement scheme consultant offers one the freedom of working at their own pace and setting their own time" he said.
As of May this year, there are 67,000 individuals who are registered as consultants with FIMM.
"We are always conducting surveys to get public feedback. Currently, we have an ongoing project called Project Y3ars which is a three-year plan that was drawn up to enhance industry education methods and augment investor protection mechanisms to serve the industry better," he said, adding that the plan was launched last year.
"For instance, one area of interest amongst investors and the public is on UT fees and charges, as well as services rendered by consultants. Thanks to the feedback received, we released a research paper on unit trust fees and charges early this year. As UT is a highly regulated investment product, there are safeguards in the pre-sales, sales and even post-sales processes, as well as adequate disclosures made in the offering documents and regular reports"
FIMM was established in 1993 to support the development of the investment management industry.
On Jan 20 2011, FIMM was recognised as a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) by the SC.
As an SRO, FIMM regulates and supervises its members and registered persons to strive for the highest level of integrity and standards of practice that will best serve the investment management industry and promote investor protection.
* The writer was a journalist with the New Straits Times before joining a Fortune Global 500 real estate company. This article is a collaboration between the New Straits Times and Tradeview, the author of 'Once Upon A Time In Bursa'.