Securities watchdog agency fights “black transactions”

Illegal transactions, or ‘black transactions’, are still happening as there are little opportunities or means to punish wrong-doers.

In a report reviewing the stock market in 2009, the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) said that it had discovered many violation cases and reported them to the State Securities Commission (SSC). By November 30, 2009, HNX had discovered 17,000 cases, where investors placed orders to sell and buy the same securities within the same trading session. HNX has requested 70 securities companies give explanations on 330 cases, where the orders to purchase and sell the same securities were matched.

HNX also kept watch on 484 transactions made by 280 big shareholders and discovered 38 cases of violations on information exposure. It discovered 155 cases with violations on information exposure of inside shareholders and 13 violations of treasury stocks transactions.

According to SSC, in 2009, though the commission strengthened supervision and inspection, it admitted that it still had too many difficulties in market management.

The agency has discovered nine cases of inside trading and controlling stock prices, while the real number of cases should have been much higher. Leaders of the agency admitted that it is very difficult to investigate and impose punishment on the cases. In developed economies, only 1-2 cases are successful in every 50 investigated cases. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s SSC does not have the jurisdiction as high as in other countries. Especially, the punishment is not heavy enough to deter violators.

SSC said that the watchdog agency is going to amend Decree 36 on imposing punishment on violations in securities market and to set up stricter regulations. Especially, the Vietnam Securities Depository Centre will also help discover violators, which allow them to make timely punishment decisions.

Experts believe that high information technology will be the key to help better manage securities transactions. HNX’s officials said that HNX and the HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE) are beginning to apply new systems which allows them to more strictly control abnormal information.

VietNamNet/TBKTVN

Tags: Vietnam finance news, Vietnam stock market