Brokers to disclose trading curb details from Dec 31

Singapore brokers will announce and explain decisions to impose trading restrictions beginning Dec 31, the Securities Association of Singapore (SAS) announced on Tuesday.

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Brokers to disclose trading curb details from Dec 31

Kenneth Lim
31 December 2014

Singapore brokers will announce and explain decisions to impose trading restrictions beginning Dec 31, the Securities Association of Singapore (SAS) announced on Tuesday.

Each of the nine Singapore SAS member houses will announce on its respective website when and why it has tightened its trading policy on any Singapore-listed stock. The firms were not required to disclose that information previously, and most distributed that information only to its own traders.

The nine member firms are AmFraser, CIMB, DBS Vickers, DMG & Partners, Lim & Tan, Maybank Kim Eng, OCBC Securities, Phillip Capital and UOB Kay Hian.

The change comes in the wake of the October 2013 sell-off in penny stocks, which came shortly after certain trading houses imposed restrictions on a handful of stocks. Partly in response to the penny selldown, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) began a wide-ranging consultation on various regulatory and market-practice changes in February 2014.

The initial proposal was for all of the trading restriction disclosures to be hosted on SGX’s website to enhance the transparency.

But the industry expressed concern that “the proposed centralised announcement of trading restrictions on SGX ... could add to the price-sensitivity of the information and accentuate market reaction”, according to a report by MAS and SGX in August.

In the response by MAS and SGX to that feedback, the regulators acknowledged that prescriptive regulations may not be ideal, and tasked SAS to lead the development of a set of industry guidelines.

SAS has decided not to host the announcements on a single website. Instead, SAS provides links to each member firm’s website at http://thesas.org.sg/announcement-on-trading-services.html.

Some of those links are directed to a dedicated page on a broker’s website for trading restriction announcements. Some links go to a broker’s homepage, and investors must locate another link there to find the trading restriction announcements.

Asked if it was satisfied with the implementation by SAS, MAS said in a statement: “This initiative by the Securities Association of Singapore is part of the overall package of measures SGX and MAS are putting in place to strengthen the securities market. Investors will benefit from greater transparency in the disclosure of information on trading restrictions imposed by securities brokers.”

Melinda Sam, CEO of SAS, said the guidelines were designed to address any concerns about “information asymmetry” in the market, and were arrived at following several meetings.

“All of our members are already aligned,” Ms Sam said.

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