On August 3, 2012, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) publishes the "Notice of Sorting Out and Releasing Regulatory Documents on Information Disclosure of Listed Companies" (the Notice for short) for the full implementation.
For a long time, the SSE has performed its duty of self-regulation on information disclosure in accordance with the Securities Law by adhering to the principles of institutionalization and rationalization and attaching importance to the regulation on listed companies for promoting their development, in an effort to facilitate their improvement in information disclosure. An SSE official said that the release of the Notice was an important measure the exchange took to continuously enhance the self-regulation on information disclosure and also an embodiment for the exchange to propel the regulation and publish the overall deployment. The regulatory documents on information disclosure are the standards made by the SSE for the self-regulation on information disclosure. Most of the documents have been released to the public but a fraction of operational and explanatory business guides are only open to listed companies. Based on the previous regulatory work, the SSE launches the current campaign for sorting out the published regulatory documents on information disclosure and making all of them public.
It is learnt that the SSE's campaign is attributed to two aspects as follows.
On one hand, regulation is integrated into service. The SSE is responsible for the regulation on and the service for listed companies fulfilling their obligations of information disclosure according to law. The exchange's current campaign for clearer and more transparent regulatory standards does embody the concept of integrating regulation into service and promoting regulation with service as it not only brings conveniences for investors, listed companies and other market participants for search and use but also helps listed companies and other relevant obligors for information disclosure to know well about the regulatory standards for information disclosure and to better comply with relevant rules.
In the campaign, the SSE has formulated 3 business guides for information disclosure, revised 13 business guides for information disclosure, and abolished 5 business rules for regulation on information disclosure and 40 business guides for regulation on information disclosure. A total of 29 business rules and 49 business guides for regulation on information disclosure are left valid after the change.
On basis of the change, the SSE divides the regulatory documents on information disclosure into business rules and business guides for regulation on information disclosure. According to the Notice, the business rules in a relatively stable state mainly refer to the provisions on the basic requirements for regulation on information disclosure as well as the rights and obligations of all parties related to information disclosure, involving information disclosure, election and appointment of directors, management on secretaries to the directorate, filing for independent directors, trainings and other aspects of work in listed companies. The business guides are to further define or explain the business procedures or operational instructions for issues related to information disclosure, which are classified into work memos for routine information disclosure, work memos for special information disclosure and notices for information disclosure according to different contents.
On the other hand, supervision is voluntarily accepted. The full openness of the standards for regulation on information disclosure of listed companies is conducive to rationalizing the SSE's self-regulation and enhancing the openness and institutionalization of the regulation on information disclosure. Besides, it enables investors, listed companies and other market participants to have a clear idea of the SSE's regulation on information disclosure and take a positive attitude towards the supervision, thus propelling the exchange to renew its efforts on self-regulation on information disclosure.
According to sources, the SSE published the catalogues of the changed regulatory documents on information disclosure in the media designated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission for information disclosure and its own website (www.sse.com.cn) when releasing the Notice. Furthermore, the exchange especially reset the column of Legal Rules on its external website, adding the sub-column of SSE Business Guides and Procedures to the original sub-column SSE Business Rules. In the two sub-columns, the full texts of business rules and business guides for regulation on information disclosure have been respectively published for investors to make a real-time search. The SSE will maintain relevant columns and update them in line with the revision of relevant documents in future.
As pointed out by an SSE official, the openness of regulation is helpful for the exchange to enhance the self-regulation, improve the transparency of regulation, build up the public trust in regulation and rationalize the listing. The SSE has formulated and perfected the working plan for the openness of regulation and will carry on with relevant work based on the current release of regulatory standards. What's more, the exchange is drawing up clearer and more reasonable procedures for the regulation on information disclosure of listed companies, in a bid to achieve the openness in the regulatory process and result for information disclosure step by step within the year, enhance the institutionalization and rationalization of the self-regulation, and push forward the sound growth of the securities market.
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Shanghai Stock Exchange Sorts Out And Releases Regulatory Documents On Information Disclosure Of Listed Companies For Improving Openness And Transparency
Date 07/08/2012