Big revamp of CDP system under way

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#1
For the portion in BOLD, sure or not? Huh

The Straits Times
Dec 15, 2011
Big revamp of CDP system under way

SGX to allow stockbroking firms access to clients' accounts

By Goh Eng Yeow

THE Singapore Exchange (SGX) is embarking on a radical overhaul of its Central Depository (CDP) system, which holds the shares of some 1.4 million individual investors here.

The revamp, which will take three years to complete, will make big changes to the way shares are bought and sold here and hopefully, raise the quality of advice given by stockbrokers.

One key change will be to enable Singapore's stockbroking firms to gain access to a client's CDP account to find out exactly what stocks are in his portfolio - if he gives them the permission to do so.

With this information, brokers will be in a better position to advise clients how to tweak their portfolios in response to market movements.

The move will reverse a longstanding policy which was first introduced in 1987 when stock trading went paperless.

The rationale then was to offer assurances to investors that their shares would be safe with a central depository specially set up to hold them, rather than with a broking firm that might trade the shares without clients' knowledge, or lend their shares out and expose clients to unnecessary risks.

But this system has since gone out of sync with the practice in most developed stock markets worldwide, said SGX chief Magnus Bocker, revealing details of the revamp to The Straits Times in an exclusive interview.

'In most other countries, you keep your stocks with the broker, so that your broker can see what you have and tell you what to buy and what to sell,' he explained.

'In our market, if our shares are kept in the CDP, the broker doesn't know. This is negative for the equities market.'

The CDP's overhaul will also see the introduction of computer hardware and software that will cut down the considerable paperwork generated each time an investor buys or sells shares.

Currently, an investor receives at least two mailers from the CDP each time he makes a transaction. In future, he can choose to get the statements online.

Mr Bocker said he hoped the revamp will allow investors to develop much closer relationships with their brokers and allow them to assess whether dealers were offering good advice.

'I also think there is an opportunity to grow the retail participation in the stock market,' he added.

'Out of the 1.4 million accounts, we only have 200,000 doing one transaction per quarter and 20,000 doing a trade a day. Stocks should be a natural part of anyone's long-term savings.'

The investment in a new CDP system also marks a further step in SGX's efforts to boost its ageing infrastructure. The CDP uses technology which is already more than 20 years old.

In August, SGX installed a new $250 million trading engine - reputedly the world's fastest - that can execute trades 3,000 times faster than the blink of an eye.

Phillip Securities' managing director Loh Hoon Sun said the overhaul will be good for both investors and dealers.

His view was echoed by veteran stock investor Denis Distant, who pointed out drawbacks of the current system

'In the United States, you will know right away if you key in a sell order whether you have the shares or not,' he explained.

'Here, with all shares kept in the CDP, you have to remember exactly how many shares you own. Otherwise, you may end up over-selling and the mistake can be costly.'

engyeow@sph.com.sg

My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
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#2
(15-12-2011, 06:50 AM)Musicwhiz Wrote: For the portion in BOLD, sure or not? Huh

The Straits Times
Dec 15, 2011
Big revamp of CDP system under way

SGX to allow stockbroking firms access to clients' accounts

By Goh Eng Yeow

THE Singapore Exchange (SGX) is embarking on a radical overhaul of its Central Depository (CDP) system, which holds the shares of some 1.4 million individual investors here.

The revamp, which will take three years to complete, will make big changes to the way shares are bought and sold here and hopefully, raise the quality of advice given by stockbrokers.

.

The part in bold is likely a cynical remark by the journalist, not SGX.

IMO, Stockbrokers are like Financial Planners. The good ones would have become rich (by following their own advice) and they'd be very selective of their clients (not interested in small fry). So, if you are a small fry, you'd have to be very lucky to be able to get a good stockbroker (someone who's new but still have the right attributes to become good) who can offer good advice. Very likely, you'll get one who'd be constantly advising you to buy and sell as he only makes $$ (commission) from you when you trade. Tongue



Luck & Fortune Favours those who are Prepared & Decisive when Opportunity Knocks
------------ 知己知彼 ,百战不殆 ;不知彼 ,不知己 ,每战必殆 ------------
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#3
Perhaps the biggest change they should introduce is to scrap the super-outdated T+3 system? Undecided
My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
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#4
(15-12-2011, 09:35 AM)Musicwhiz Wrote: Perhaps the biggest change they should introduce is to scrap the super-outdated T+3 system? Undecided

IMO, T+3 encourages trading, which means more $$ for SGX. The risk of trading is borne by the brokers ie. no risk to SGX. So, I don't see why SGX would want to remove that, unless it's a directive from MAS or brokers start making a lot of losses (maybe next super correction) and lobbies SGX to implement that.
Luck & Fortune Favours those who are Prepared & Decisive when Opportunity Knocks
------------ 知己知彼 ,百战不殆 ;不知彼 ,不知己 ,每战必殆 ------------
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#5
Still, I feel the intentions are not aligned with investors. The revamps to CDP are just pro-broker & pro-SGX.

Advice given will just be towards generating more trading sales.

Maybe, brokers should be given long-term commissions pegged to stock prices fluctuation...! Big Grin
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#6
Totally agree with KopiKat here, as long as the incentives remain unchanged I don't foresee changes to the goal of the broker (which is to encourage trades). In fact, with the change, it's probably likely that you'd get brokers encouraging even more trading- If the broker knows exactly what positions you have, they probably will encourage more repositioning/asset allocation/rebalancing or however they want to call it. I don't foresee the institutional investors being affected much. Rather, it's the mom and pop investors that may be more likely to receive more calls from their broker.

On the contrary, for my own selfish reasons, it's not a bad thing; If trading were to be less frequent, imagine what the brokerage comms will be. Also, spreads will probably be narrower and of course, in the off chance that madness affects the crowds, that presents the best opportunities for investors to buy/sell.
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#7
(15-12-2011, 09:59 AM)dzwm87 Wrote: Still, I feel the intentions are not aligned with investors. The revamps to CDP are just pro-broker & pro-SGX.

Advice given will just be towards generating more trading sales.

Maybe, brokers should be given long-term commissions pegged to stock prices fluctuation...! Big Grin

Can they please reduce the min lot size to 1?
With a $250 million trading engine that can execute faster than the blink of an eye, it is kind of a joke that it can only go in the multiple of 1000 for most of the stocks.

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#8
(15-12-2011, 10:29 AM)yeokiwi Wrote: Can they please reduce the min lot size to 1?

Yes! Can someone explain why this is necessary?

Update:

Ok, feeling dumb since I didn't google before posting and now answering my own question in some way but hope others can give more views too.

Found this from 2002 on MAS's website (link here):

Quote:4 Further, abolishing minimum board lots could result in listed companies having large numbers of shareholders each holding a small number of shares. This could increase the cost of shareholder communication (e.g. printing and sending annual reports and shareholder circulars) for our listed companies significantly.

Comments:
- Reasoning sounds a little iffy to me but noted that it's way back in 2002.
- Noted that d.o.g. also questioned SGX's minimum board lot policy in the SGX thread some time back.
- With some of the bigger companies trending towards furnishing only a summary report or providing digitial versions of ARs, will we see a move towards the abolishment of min. board lots in the near future?
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#9
(15-12-2011, 09:46 AM)KopiKat Wrote: IMO, T+3 encourages trading, which means more $$ for SGX. The risk of trading is borne by the brokers ie. no risk to SGX. So, I don't see why SGX would want to remove that, unless it's a directive from MAS or brokers start making a lot of losses (maybe next super correction) and lobbies SGX to implement that.

In that case, brokers and clients' interests can never be truly aligned. Tongue
My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
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#10
(15-12-2011, 10:55 AM)kazukirai Wrote: Found this from 2002 on MAS's website (link here):

Quote:4 Further, abolishing minimum board lots could result in listed companies having large numbers of shareholders each holding a small number of shares. This could increase the cost of shareholder communication (e.g. printing and sending annual reports and shareholder circulars) for our listed companies significantly.

Comments:
- Reasoning sounds a little iffy to me but noted that it's way back in 2002.
- Noted that d.o.g. also questioned SGX's minimum board lot policy in the SGX thread some time back.
- With some of the bigger companies trending towards furnishing only a summary report or providing digitial versions of ARs, will we see a move towards the abolishment of min. board lots in the near future?

Listed companies shudders at the thought that comes their AGM, they're going to face thousands of shareholders (each holding a few shares), who're going to hungrily attack their buffett spread even before the AGM ends. They'll have to book a convention hall and ensure it doesn't end up as a PR disaster as after all, A Hungry Shareholder is an Angry Shareholder (come next AGM, they'll face many tough Qs from these Angry Shareholders, no, not from their Financial Statements, but rather on why they'd not catered enough food for all).

The other possible reason I can think of is that with min. 1 share trades, there'll be a lot of jokers out there who'll flood the system with multiple 1-Share trades and perhaps causing the system to overload and crash.

Even now, with min. 1000 shares board size, you can see these jokers flooding the system with 1-lotters. Most likely, these are the House Traders or Brokers (having a huge order) who are too free or wants to disguise their orders as small retail ones. With 1-Share, many of us can also join in the "fun". Tongue



Luck & Fortune Favours those who are Prepared & Decisive when Opportunity Knocks
------------ 知己知彼 ,百战不殆 ;不知彼 ,不知己 ,每战必殆 ------------
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