Just 54 percent of Vietnam securities firms, according to a Vietnam Association of Financial Executives report, are meeting information disclosure standards. This is a significant fall from 80 percent last year, The Investor is reporting. 

Of note, information disclosures on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange have been cited by key stock market index makers FTSE Russell and MSCI as one criteria holding the local bourse back from being upgraded from frontier to emerging.

There are two key parts to this.

Firstly, there is a lack of communication materials in English. Information disclosures are often circulated in Vietnamese before an English copy is made available. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for information disclosures to be scanned copies of printed documents rather than dynamic PDFs that can be translated online. This can give local traders a time advantage over foreign investors.

On top of that, disclosures on the HoSE are often late, sometimes by months or even in some cases years. Vietnam Airlines’ audited financial statements for 2022, due in early 2023 were not made available until December of that year. These sorts of delays are common and problematic for traders, but whereas the HoSE has attempted to crack down on this behaviour, the reality is it is still rampant.

The irony here is that these securities firms stand to probably benefit the most from a stock market upgrade.

See also: Vietnam’s Stock Market Upgrade Opportunity: Unpacked