Following the issuance of the new Securities Law 2019, in November 2020, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular 96/2020 guiding on disclosure of information on securities market (Circular 96/2020) with effect from 1 January 2021. Circular 96/2020 includes several new points as follows:

Definition of “transaction date” and “transaction completion date”.

Circular 96/2020 provides detailed description to define a “transaction date” and “transaction completion date”. The detailed description will help clarify the disclosure obligations of the entities subject to disclosure obligation.

On 26 August 2020, the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) issued Decision 154/QD-VSD (Decision 154/2020) to allow a lender who has taken a mortgage over shares or other securities registered with the VSD (Public Securities) to request the VSD to transfer the mortgaged or pledged Public Securities to a third party designated by the lender, if the mortgage or pledge agreement allows the lender to do so.

Previously, the VSD only transfers the Public Securities to the lenders when the lenders take actions to enforce a mortgage or pledge over Public Securities. Accordingly, the old regulations could cause problems for lenders who are subject to restrictions in directly holding the relevant Public Securities (e.g., ownership limit or other investment conditions).