SAS Reply to Editorial Report

The Editor, The Business Times

The Securities Association of Singapore (SAS) would like to respond to your editorial “Trading representatives deserve better” dated June 19, 2013.

Under the current Monetary Authority of Singapore regulations, trading representatives (TRs) who have not passed the Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services Module 6A exam by July 1, 2013, are to confine their dealing and financial advisory activities to only Excluded Investment Products (EIPs).

Financial products are getting more complex. It is widely recognized that it is important that TRs raise their professional knowledge to better serve their clients. Globally financial professionals are up-skilling and Singapore is no exemption.

With respect to the SIP regime, TRs are given more than a year to prepare themselves for the June 30, 2013 deadline set by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to pass the Module 6A exam. 

SAS member firms have encouraged TRs to pass the exam. To this end, they have assisted tangibly by:-

(i) Funding a new preparatory course covering the syllabus of Module 6A

(ii) Co-sponsoring some 3,000 TRs who attended this course since March 2012

For TRs who failed to pass Module 6A or chose to confine their dealings and financial advisor services to EIPs, SAS further assisted by:-

(a) Formulating a uniform industry-wide arrangement to support them with Module 6A house dealers to execute       SIPs trades for their clients

(b) In contrast to allegations that clients are taken away from these TRs, under the industry-wide arrangement, EIP-qualified TRs are able to retain their clients unless their clients opt otherwise.

Trading representatives and clients are the very core of the broking business of our member firms. We are hence disappointed that your editorial could suggest that the welfare of TRs were ignored by SAS members. We wish to correct the erroneous view.