Capital market reform moves gather pace

The next chapter of Vietnam’s capital market story is about creating the conditions that give investors confidence to deploy it, a Hanoi workshop has heard.

- By Hazy Tran

On June 15, the State Securities Commission of Vietnam convened to gather feedback on proposed amendments to the Securities Law, part of efforts to modernise the country’s capital market framework.

The draft law centres on three key priorities: streamlining business and investment procedures in the securities sector; establishing legal foundations for new market mechanisms such as regulatory sandboxes and bond payment guarantee institutions; and updating regulations governing electronic transactions, securities professionals, securities firms, investment funds, and policies to strengthen the industry’s talent pool, according to its vice chairman Bui Hoang Hai.

In its mid-June published Strategy Report, SSI Research argued that Vietnam is increasingly creating its own momentum through reforms, infrastructure development and capital market expansion, with market upgrades and ratings becoming outcomes rather than drivers of growth.

“Vietnam’s capital market reforms are converging on a single insight that cuts across both the equity and infrastructure tracks: the binding constraint has never been the supply of capital, but the supply of assets that investors are genuinely willing to finance,” said the report.

On the equity side, the Securities Law revision marks a measured shift in regulatory philosophy from pre-check to post-check while consolidating the existing framework.