Why consultation papers matter
They add to transparent corporate reporting and financial market fairness
RESPONDING to industry consultation papers can feel tedious. In Singapore, the typical consultation papers circulated to stakeholders in the financial sector for their feedback are issued by either Singapore's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), or Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo).
And organisations and individuals do respond to them to further their own interests. Which is understandable. But our first instinct as investment professionals when asked to share our input with policymakers is often to ignore the request.
Admittedly, I've been guilty of this myself. Nevertheless, I responded to a few of these papers and that prompted me to wonder: Why should anybody give their views and feedback on these lengthy not-so-easy-to-comprehend documents? Aren't we sticking our necks out? Wouldn't our time and resources be better deployed elsewhere? Wouldn't we rather go bouldering or trail running, catch up on sleep, or simply do nothing?
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