Finance Ministry eyes Securities Law update

The 2006 Securities Law took effect on January 1, 2007 and was amended in 2010. After 10 years of modifications, experts have called on more amendments to meet demand for more sophisticated securities market.

The new paper drafted by the Finance Ministry outlines the objectives and content of the new legislation as well as measures to implement the policy.

One of its highlights is that the State Securities Commission (SSC) will be given the full authority to enforce the key functions of monitoring, inspecting and managing the market as well as handling violations.

Under the new law, SSC may ask agencies, organisations and individuals to provide information and documents related to the subjects with signs of violations, or require credit institutions to provide information on bank account transactions.

The new law also obliges stricter disclosure regulations, following which disclosure obligation will be based on the capital size of public companies. Process, objects and content of information disclosure by big shareholders owning over 5 percent of the company’s capital and disclosure of employees have also been clarified.

Regarding the market restructuring, the two stock exchanges will be merged into one and operate under the specific business type which manages three market segments including stock market, bond market and derivatives market.

Market transactions will be under three-tier supervision including securities companies, the stock exchange and SSC. Thus, the new law adds securities firms to be the first tier of supervision and ask these firms to build their supervision mechanism.

The new law also sets targets to diversify products on the securities market and improve conditions for offering securities.

In an effort to attract more foreign capital, the Ministry of Finance is expected to approve the 100 percent foreign ownership in domestic public companies which are included in the list of conditional business lines to foreign investment without specific ratio of foreign ownership.

The Vietnamese Government last year issued Decree 60, which lifted limits on foreign holdings in domestic public companies and triggered new foreign capital inflows in the stock market. However, the spillover effect of this regulation is limited, due to complicated rules of different authorities which are beyond the power of the SSC and the Finance Ministry.

SSC chairman Vu Bang in a meeting early this year said the new generation Securities Law are expected to facilitate foreign investments and overcome obstacles from Law on Investment.

The new law is calling consultation from ministries and sectors which are subjects to the policy.