TWO former senior employees of UOB Kay Hian Private Limited (UOBKH) were charged on Wednesday for allegedly lying to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in relation to reports on a then Catalist aspirant. Lan Kang Ming, 38, and Wee Toon Lee, 34, each face three charges of providing MAS with false information in October 2018 in relation to due diligence reports on an unidentified company applying to list on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. MAS said in a media statement on Wednesday that it was performing an onsite inspection of UOBKH between June and August 2018, to assess the latter's controls, policies and procedures in relation to its role as an issue manager for Initial Public Offering (IPOs). During the examination, Lan and Wee were said to have provided different versions of a due diligence report relating to background checks on a company applying to be listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. UOBKH had acted as the issue manager
Comments
04 March 2015
Recently, Chew Su Tat of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) commented in the local media on the issue of continuous all-day trading (CAT) in our local bourse.
While I acknowledge that CAT was implemented in August 2011 at the request of various stakeholders, the common perception then was that it was done to assist algorithmic and high-frequency traders.
Now that we are told that it was implemented “to protect retail investors from sharp market movements”, perhaps the SGX could enlighten us on how our retail investors have benefited from this “protection”.
Readers would note that retail investors in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand do not seem to enjoy similar “protection” and yet seem to be coping well. These stock markets break for lunch for periods ranging from one hour in Hong Kong to two hours in Malaysia, with no problems arising from “sharp market movements”.
We therefore wonder why investors in Singapore need this special protection. We hope Mr Chew can elaborate.
Natarajan A