The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has recently announced the result of self-examination and visiting research on its members' investor education efforts, which aims to urge its member units to earnestly implement relevant business requirements and share the experience and practical measures of investor education. Respect for and realization of investors' legitimate rights and interests, including the right to know and the right to choose, are directly related to the implementation of relevant requirements of regulators as well as the efforts in investor suitability management, investor education and customer service by the securities companies and their business departments, which are the backbone of the front-line investor education efforts. The self-examination and visiting research on investor education initiated by the SSE is designed to strengthen the management over and standardize the operation of its members for better investor protection. On the one hand, members of the SSE were urged to well perform their duties to improve investor education and service quality. On the other hand, qualified investors cultivation was speeded up by exploring effective investor education modes and measures, enhancing working experience summarization and communication, and pooling industry-wide efforts. Overall, the vast majority of members carried out the relevant requirements of regulators and self-regulatory organizations for investor education and achieved some success. For instance, the "headquarters – business departments" two-tier investor education mechanism has been established, with relevant systems, personnel and funds in place, diversified forms and methods of investor education, and closer combination with customer service. Some members, learning from their practices in the past years, boasted a certain valuable experience and features based on their own advantages and customer characteristics. For example, SWS and China Merchants Securities integrated investor education with customer service and marketing and expanded its coverage of investor education through an array of investor education activities with nationwide influence. Changjiang Securities, attaching importance to front-line investor cultivation, improved its investor education and service quality by adopting the "seeder-type" internal management mode. Guosen Securities innovatively introduced the bidding mechanism for the implementation scheme of investor education and strengthened the uniform deployment, thus achieving a desirable investor education result. However, the SSE caught sight of some problems in the current front-line investor education work through its field research, including imbalance in investor education and service resources, difficulty in education and service of off-site customers, and inadequate implementation of investor suitability management system. With an eye on that, the SSE will continue to urge securities firms to pay more attention to balanced input in investor education by basing itself on its function, leveraging the industry advantage and intensifying the management over its members. Meanwhile, it will highlight resources integration and diversify network resources for investor education to provide better guidance to members' education and service of off-site investors and drive the improvement of investor education system and incentive system. All this will propel SSE members to increase their efforts in investor education, service and protection. |
FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index:
Shanghai Stock Exchange Urges Members To Better Investor Protection
Date 16/03/2011