The Ministry of Finance has developed a draft circular that provides a general legal framework on the electronic trading activities at the stock market.

The draft circular has been sent to the market members to collect their ideas and opinions.

It is expected to ensure that the electronic trading activities at the stock market will be transparent, fair, secure and correspond to the Law of Electronic Trading, the Law of Cyber Security and other regulations.

Under the draft circular, the electronic trading software programmes that are currently being used by the market members must be inspected and scanned for security loopholes, and they must also be examined once a year.

Brokerage companies must also develop solutions that allow investors and traders to use their digital ID numbers and signatures if needed.

Securities firms that are licenced to provide electronic trading services must submit reports on a number of issues such as the electronic trading orders – which occur during the year – system upgrades and changes in the trading system.

The reports must be submitted within seven working days before the brokerage firms make their system changes and upgrades. The e-data files are also required and must be prepared within five days after the quarter-end day (for quarterly reports) and 30 days since the year-end day (for annual reports).

If approved, the draft circular would replace Circular 87/2013/TT-BTC issued by the finance ministry on June 28, 2013, regulating the electronic trading at the stock market.

According to the State Securities Commission, 88 securities firms have been licenced to provide electronic trading services for investors.

The total number of registered e-trading accounts has reached more than 1.1 million. In 2016, more than 480 billion e-trading transactions, worth VND1.4 trillion (US$62.2 million), were made.

The highest-level market regulator said that there were some issues with the implementation of Circular 87, mainly regarding cyber security.

According to SSC, there have been no requirements for brokerage firms, stock exchanges and the Vietnam Securities Depository to provide trading data, which would help market regulators to supervise and prevent investors from manipulating share prices and earning illegitimate profits. — VNS