The State Securities Commission of Vietnam over the past time has constantly applied information technology in market supervising to improve management efficiency, ensure transparency and protect the legal rights of investors, said the Vietnam Business Forum (VIB Forum).

The weekly magazine of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry quoted Doan Thanh Tung, Director of the Department of Information Technology under the State Securities Commission, as saying this is essential in order to meet the market's development in the future.

According to statistics, currently Vietnam's stock market has 694 listed companies on two exchange floors and 137 companies registered for trading on the UPCom floor along with 105 securities companies, 47 fund management companies in the country, 11 custodian banks and 42 auditing companies which have operation licence. There are also 1,912 joint stock companies whose shares are registered to transact through OTC floor.

Along with the development of the economy, the number of listed companies on the stock market will rise in the future. Therefore, to ensure the safety of the payment system for securities transactions, the State Securities Commission, in cooperation with exchange departments and securities depository centres, has enhanced supervision of transaction members, disclosure of information, rumours, and registration, depository, clearing and settlement of securities depository members activities, etc.

The application of information technology in monitoring and information disclosure on stock market has been applied by the State Securities Commission in 2013. According to Doan Thanh Tung, this will help improve the market’s transparency and fairness, strengthen the protection of investors in the market through the ability to set criteria for early warning as well as perform warning criteria according to rumours and erratic information, provide analysis of market transactions and support management and supervision of securities transactions on the market to meet the operation and development requirements of Vietnam’s stock market and bring it closer to international practices and standards.

According to Doan Thanh Tung, MSS Securities Trading System has initially promoted its efficiency. Particularly, it ensures transaction activities on the stock market in compliance with the provisions of the Securities Law and other relevant regulations, detects and provides alerts for abnormal deals, and gives strict sanctions for acts violating stock transaction laws and provisions.

Evaluating the results of the application of information technology in supervision and management, Director Doan Thanh Tung said, in 2013, the State Securities Commission had 1,000 public company piloted for information disclosure system (IDS). The system has contributed to the initial computerization of supervision function and information disclosure on the stock market. This will benefit public companies in the implementation of the obligation to report and information disclosure. At the same time, this will help management agencies to shorten the time of gathering information, to accelerate information time processing and to timely disclose information to the market.

When the stock market is growing, besides the participation of companies in the country, foreign investors will be interested in and get even more involved in Vietnam's stock market, which will bring higher risks for the market such as manipulation and fake price. Therefore, to meet the development requirements, the State Securities Commission should strengthen supervision and management capability in order to protect the legitimate rights of investors and ensure market’s sustainability.

Under the plan, in 2014, the State Securities Commission will focus closely on supervising businesses and organisations.

In the future, the State Securities Commission will continue to deploy applications to support the management and supervision of the market such as building a database system managing stock companies, fund management companies and investment funds; building a database management system for people practising securities and foreign investors, etc.

It will also ensure the alignment and effective coordination between the information system of the State Securities Commission with information system of the Ministry of Finance, stock exchange departments, securities depository centres and other related units.