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Singapore Exchange Aims for Faster Trade Settlement Next Year

By Abhishek Vishnoi
November 29, 2017, 5:10 PM GMT+8

Singapore Exchange Ltd. plans to speed up clearing and settlement of securities to reduce systemic risks and bring the island nation’s market in line with global standards.

The exchange wants to shorten the settlement cycle to two days from three, introduce simultaneous settlement of securities and cash, and ensure payments of Singapore dollar transactions will be carried through MAS Electronic Payment System instead of commercial banks, it said on Wednesday.

The moves, which were presented in a consultation paper, will bring SGX in line with exchanges in Hong Kong, the U.S., Europe and Australia, which operate on a two-day settlement cycle. Indonesia and Thailand are contemplating similar moves.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-next-year
Singapore Exchange Takes on Hong Kong With Dual-Class Shares

By Andrea Tan
January 22, 2018, 9:54 AM GMT+8 Updated on January 22, 2018, 12:54 PM GMT+8

Singapore Exchange Ltd. said it allow companies with dual-class share structures to list, a month after Hong Kong announced a similar proposal, as competition between markets for technology listings becomes increasingly fierce.

SGX will consult on the rules this quarter and expects the first listing “soon after,” Chief Executive Officer Loh Boon Chye said Friday at the company’s quarterly earnings briefing.

The moves by the two Asian exchanges come as some of the world’s largest technology companies from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Facebook Inc. use stock with enhanced voting power to protect the influence of their founders and management. Such structures have faced opposition from investors, who fear their rights could be eroded amid corporate governance concerns.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...ass-shares
The Asean link (Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand) didn't work out if there are too many players with conflicting interests/agenda and so maybe just 2 players might be easier to decide the rules of the game? But who will forget CLOB?

Would this be a case of "what the wise men (HK) does in the beginning, the fool does in the end"?

Singapore, Malaysia Agree to New Stock Exchange Trading Link

Singapore and Malaysia unveiled a plan to create a trading link that allows each country’s investors to access the other’s stock market.

The news was announced by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at a Securities Commission conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The link will be established by the end of the year, he said. Singapore and Malaysia’s regulators and national exchanges will work on the arrangements for the system, which will connect markets with more than $1.2 trillion in value and about 1,600 listed companies.

The move comes just months after the closing of an earlier attempt to connect the markets, which started in 2012. While that effort failed, the success of Hong Kong’s links with exchanges in mainland China made it more pressing for bourses in Southeast Asia to establish their own regional alliance, said Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB Private Banking in Singapore.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...ading-link
Actually CLOB was an offshore trading platform during script based settlement and facilitated by depositing Malaysia scripts in SGX. IIRC Malaysia had protested few times but to no avail.

Trading links however are onshore trading platforms similar to HKSE Connect, to make trading between the 2 exchanges easier and cost effective
not sure if it will make much of a difference, maybe a slight bump in volume.

Pretty sure most serious Msian investors would have open broker account here if they were interested and for locals its not difficult to go JB and register a bank and brokerage account to trade on KLSE.
I didn't quite understand how transactions were settled for CLOB shares, and why there were so many Malaysian scripts trading OTC in SGX. I found a rather detailed description from an old forum post which I thought made some sense. Can the experts verify?

My question is how was the Malaysian authorities able to freeze trading of CLOB shares, if the trading was done within Singapore jurisdiction?



1. shares used to be in paper form, scripts, and after every transaction you'd send your scripts to somewhere where the buyer will get it from you and pay you the money (figure of speech).. 

2. SES and KLSE had alot of cross listed shares, e.g. renong, Publich bank, etc.etc were all listed officially in Sg and Malaysia. 

3. then some1 thinks that we are earning alot of their commission by transacting their shares in SES.. so they called up all thier listed companies and ask them to delist from sg and bring all shares back to KLSE. 

4. however, there were alot of scripts in Sg of the malaysian companies. and I suspect the remisier association or SES thought that not having CLOB wld mean that their income drops by >50% (since clob takes majority of punting transaction). so they came up with this idea of a Clob, that trade shares we happen to hold. 

5. KL complained, protested, etc.etc. but SES decided to continue. KL can't do much because technically we could have just bring the scripts we have and sell it across the strait, bring back Ringgit. Ringgit was transactable then. 

6. for years they kept mugging us to return them the counters. even though that would have meant KLSE wld be flooded with so many extra shares that wld have certainly killed off the market. 

7. finally, when they decided to jump the gun and declare capital control, they found a lock that can kill the clob forever. 

http://forum.shareinvestor.com/archive/0...D31_1.html
It didn’t freeze trading in CLOB per se as it has no jurisdiction. Capital control determined that all offshore trading was illegal. All the scripts and ringgit have to go back to Malaysia to be legal. If the scripts didn’t go back it is deemed worthless and deem as capital reduction by the Malaysian company

It was a panic also because many scripts were actually forgeries.
some background information on CLOB and subsequent closure: http://stocktaleslot.blogspot.sg/2006/03/clob-saga.html

Probably this trading link will have a win-win situation - ie. the clearing, settlement and custodian arrangements will be equitable, fair and deemed legal-binding - then maybe investors may be convinced. In anyways, there will always be sovereign risk involved as long as it is between 2 countries, compared with HK-Shanghai stock connect.
This will be a huge blow to SGX as Nifty futures account for ~10-15% of total derivative volume (2nd largest after China A50 futures). SGX has put out a PR today that talks about the various actions it will take and the assurance to all market participants.

I reckon this will be 1 of the first stern test for the new CEO and his team, to see how they respond to this Indian rejection.

SGX: Will seek 'viable solutions' after India pulls support for offshore Nifty futures

THE SINGAPORE Exchange (SGX) said that it will work with the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) to develop "viable solutions for international investors" after India's three main bourses said they would stop licensing data for offshore derivatives linked to their domestic indices.

"SGX wishes to assure market participants that we will take all measures to maintain orderly trading and clearing of SGX India equity derivatives for our international clients," SGX said in a statement.

"We will work closely with NSE, the market participants and the regulators, over the next several months to develop viable solutions for international investors into India."

India's three main stock exchanges - NSE, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), and the Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSEI) - said on Friday that they will stop licensing their securities or sharing data with foreign exchanges in a bid to prevent trading volumes from leaking overseas.

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companie...hore-nifty


SGX 11th Feb response:
http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/20180211...eID=488609
Whats happening now in Nifty is similar to what happened to CLOB but to less devastating effect to retailers. INR is controlled currency

What pissed me was that SGX charged clearing fee for CLOB so they are responsible for the transfer of title. Similarly in Nifty futures they cant say the trades are not valid or someone can buy over the futures at 50% discount.