Regulation

EDUCATION AND AWARENESS TO THE INDUSTRY

We adopted a new soft enforcement approach during the year with a view of addressing trading concerns more effectively. We engaged with Participants when trading concerns were noted and furnished them with irregular trade details and patterns for their due diligence review and further action. This approach also created awareness amongst senior management of broking firms on the various types of questionable trading behavior.

Initiatives to maintain high standards of business conduct, enhance self-regulation and achieve compliance with Rules were carried out. These initiatives centered on having regular engagement with senior management and Board of Directors of Participants through dialogue sessions and a conference with Compliance Officers. One-to-one engagements with senior management of Participants were also conducted to discuss our specific trading observations and concerns, operational issues and progress on past recommendations.

These engagements proved useful as we were able to quickly relay our regulatory concerns as well as obtain feedback on the challenges and limitations faced by market participants. This education and awareness programme will continue with road shows and dialogue sessions planned for Participants in 2009.

MARKET ACTIVITY

The breadth and depth of market announcements by issuers reflects the level of market activity for Regulation as a whole. In 2008, the number of corporate announcements issued was 74,815 which is a 6% drop from 2007 of 79,528, due mainly to the general slowdown in corporate activities, as shown in the histogram below.

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