Singapore regulator says reviewing SGX's role overseeing markets

[SINGAPORE] The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it's reviewing the regulatory role of Singapore Exchange Ltd as global bourses expand in the city-state.

The central bank and SGX are looking at how they split up duties in areas including member supervision and surveillance, according to MAS. Deutsche Boerse AG said last month its unit Eurex Exchange Asia will open a derivatives exchange in Singapore in the second quarter of 2016. Intercontinental Exchange Inc, which bought the Singapore Mercantile Exchange for US$150 million in February 2014, plans to start futures trading in the island nation later this year following delays.

"SGX is not unique any more so you need then to redraw some of those boundaries," Ravi Menon, managing director of MAS, said at a media briefing Tuesday after the release of the central bank's annual report. "That's something that we are currently reviewing."

The central bank has oversight over SGX, while also working with Southeast Asia's biggest bourse operator to monitor the rest of the city's listed companies. Two trading disruptions last year earned SGX a reprimand and a bar on raising fees until fixes are made. The Securities Investors Association of Singapore has called for MAS to become the nation's sole capital-markets regulator.

"As in the context of multi exchange landscape that goes beyond listing, there are issues of common products, common members and whether to centralize some of these or whether we leave it to individual exchanges to do it," MAS Deputy Managing Director Ong Chong Tee said at the briefing.

"That's something that we are reviewing."

BLOOMBERG