Review welcome, but SGX has to tread carefully

IT is certainly welcome to hear that Singapore Exchange (SGX) is to review many aspects of its business, the main reason being that it speaks well of an exchange that is willing to listen to feedback from brokers and the corporate sector and possibly reverse some of its less popular policies.

If it does, then it would go a long way towards answering critics who have long complained that SGX has always been high-handed in its dealings with the market.

By the same token though, it is important that the exchange bear in mind that some of the issues to be examined have been raised by the corporate sector and brokers because of the current weak environment that equities everywhere are labouring under, and that any concessions made now may have to be lifted later, which might then prove difficult.