Singapore’s central bank’s equities market review group has proposed measures including tax incentives for enterprises and fund managers to list in the city state.
These are the first set of proposals from the review group, which was set up last August to recommend measures to strengthen the stock market.
The group has submitted the proposals to Lawrence Wong, Singapore’s prime minister and finance minister, and will provide more updates and details on February 21, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) says in a statement on February 14.
“With technology making global markets more accessible, listings and liquidity have gravitated to a few global stock exchanges, making it more challenging for other exchanges to compete for investor interest and liquidity,” according to the central bank and financial regulator, noting for example that a significant share of global capital is now concentrated in US public markets.
“The review group recognises there are no silver bullets or easy solutions to reverse those trends.”
The review group is chaired by Chee Hong Tat, the second minister for finance, and is supported by an enterprise and markets workstream, and a regulatory workstream.
The enterprise and markets workstream focuses on ways to encourage listings, increase investor participation and improve trading liquidity. The regulatory workstream aims to streamline the regulatory framework and bolster corporate governance standards.
The group will present its next set of proposals in the second half of the year.