MAS and SGX review securities market structure and practices and propose changes including minimum trading price, collateral requirements for trading and short position reporting requirements

From 7 February 2014 to 2 May 2014, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (the “MAS”) and Singapore Exchange Limited (the “SGX”) are seeking feedback on proposals in their joint consultation paper to strengthen the securities market in Singapore in the following areas:

• Promoting orderly trading and responsible investing;
• Improving the transparency of market intervention measures; and
• Strengthening the process for admitting new listings and enforcing against listing rule breaches.

To achieve these objectives, the MAS and the SGX have proposed measures including:

• Setting a minimum trading price for issuers on the SGX Mainboard (the “Mainboard”);
• Requiring securities intermediaries to impose minimum collateral requirements on their customers for trading in SGX-listed and foreign-listed securities;
• Introducing a short position reporting regime with two possible models;
• Requiring securities intermediaries to announce, through the SGX website, trading restrictions imposed on customers;
• Establishing the Listings Disciplinary Committee and the Listing Appeals Committee; and
• Widening the SGX’s powers to take remedial action for non-compliance with the listing rules.

Reference materials

The following materials are available from the SGX website www.sgx.com:

• Press release
• Consultation paper