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MAS Invites Comments on Draft Appeals Regulations Pursuant to Securities and Futures Act, Financial Advisers Act and Ins
Posted on Thursday, September 15, 2005 - 12:00 AM

MAS has reviewed the appeals Regulations under the Securities and Futures Act (?SFA?), the Financial Advisers Act (?FAA?) and Insurance Act (?IA?), and proposes amending these Appeals Regulations. MAS invites interested parties to forward their views and comments on the draft Regulations.

Press Release

MAS has reviewed the appeals Regulations under the Securities and Futures Act ('SFA'), the Financial Advisers Act ('FAA') and Insurance Act ('IA'), and proposes amending these Appeals Regulations.¹

2 MAS invites interested parties to forward their views and comments on the draft Regulations. Parties who do not wish to comment on all of the issues may confine their responses to the specific sections that are of interest. Written comments should be submitted to:

Market Conduct Policy Division
Market and Business Conduct Department
Monetary Authority of Singapore
10 Shenton Way
MAS Building
Singapore 079117
Email: appealsreg@mas.gov.sg
Fax: (65) 6225-9766

MAS would like to request for all comments and feedback to be submitted by 15 October 2005.

3 Please note that all submissions received may be made public unless confidentiality is specifically requested for whole or part of the submission.

Draft Appeals Regulations

4 The draft Appeals Regulations (at Annexes 1, 2 and 3) are a template for the proposed appeals regulations under the SFA, FAA and IA. The draft Appeals Regulations set out the appeals process for an appellant who wishes to appeal a decision of MAS under the SFA, FAA and IA.² The Regulations include such matters as how the Appeals Advisory Committee ('AAC') is established, the duties of the secretariat, and the rights and responsibilities of the parties to the appeal.

5 Under the current Appeals Regulations under the SFA, FAA and IA, there is a 28-day time window between the time the minister refers the appeal to the AAC and the time the AAC reports back to the minister. Under the revised Appeals Regulations, the AAC will have 28 days to conduct a hearing. After the hearing, the AAC will have 14 days to submit its report to the Minister. These new provisions will allow the AAC ample time to conduct the hearing and consider the evidence presented.

6 The ability of regulators and law enforcement agencies to share regulatory information on a regulator-to -regulator basis is increasingly important given the cross border nature of much financial market activity. Arrangements that facilitate this information sharing generally require that information received from another regulator is treated as confidential. MAS must be able to commit to such confidentiality obligations so that it can actively participate in these arrangements with other regulators for information sharing. The proposed regulations seek to balance MAS' obligations as part of the international regulatory community with fairness to appellants where MAS takes regulatory action under the SFA, FAA or IA.

7 To make this balance, the new Appeals Regulations provide that MAS will disclose confidential information to the AAC while giving a summary of that information to the appellant. The Regulations also include the option of not giving an actual summary to the appellant, but rather notifying the appellant of the existence of confidential information and giving reasons to the appellant stating why giving a summary is not feasible. This is based on the approach used in the Countervailing and Anti -dumping Duties Act.

8 The AAC will decide whether or not the summary or reasons why the summary cannot be given are adequate. If the AAC is of the view that the request for confidentiality is unwarranted, the non-confidential summary is insufficient or that the reasons for not providing a non-confidential summary are not adequate, it may disregard the confidential information.

9 The current Appeals Regulations leave procedural requirements largely to the discretion of the AAC. In order to standardise the process, make the process transparent to all parties, and to prevent late submission of documents or late calling of witnesses, the revised Appeals Regulations will set out standard procedural requirements. These requirements will give guidance on when evidence must be submitted, including the calling of witnesses, while giving the AAC the flexibility to make exceptions when needed.

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¹For the SFA, we reviewed only the Securities and Futures (Appeals) Regulations 2002 and not the Securities and Futures (Appeals Under Parts II and III of Act) Regulations 2002. The proposed changes cover only the Securities and Futures (Appeals) Regulations 2002.

²Excluding Parts II and III of the SFA.

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