SGX Regco steps up its game, but it should also step with care

THE SINGAPORE Exchange's (SGX) recent burst of enforcement actions, mostly through a number of compliance notices issued to listed companies and publicly announced, has been impossible to ignore.

In the span of one month, SGX Regulation (Regco), the autonomous regulatory and enforcement arm of the market operator, has served five notices of compliance on four companies - Datapulse Technology, Midas Holdings, Noble Group and YuuZoo Corp - suspended one and referred the same to law enforcement.

That effort is welcome, but SGX must tread carefully in its enthusiasm. Maintaining the primacy of due process and proportionality, as well as displaying a willingness to explore remedies that are less disruptive for the market will go a long way towards reassuring market stakeholders that this is a step in the right direction.