Midday break, disciplinary guide should placate some SGX critics

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has often been criticised by the local trading representative (TR) community for being high-handed in its treatment of dealers and remisiers and for not being sufficiently transparent in its disciplinary decision-making.

Two developments over the past fortnight should go a long way towards addressing these criticisms - first and perhaps of greater interest to TRs is the likelihood that the SGX is set to consult the public over the feasibility of bringing back a midday trading break and second, for the first time ever, the exchange has given an insight into how its regulators decide what is allowed and what is not.

A big bone of contention between SGX and TRs was the removal of the 90-minute trading break between 12.30 pm and 2pm in order for the exchange to offer Continuous All-day Trading (CAT).