The Vietnam State Securities Commission published an overview of Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance Circular 08/2026/TT-BTC, which amends rules on securities market disclosure, exchange trading of listed and registered securities, and the operation of securities companies, effective 3 February 2026. The changes are framed as easing foreign investor participation and supporting the planned September 2026 restructuring of Vietnamese equities into FTSE Russell’s emerging market index, while strengthening oversight and the safety and continuity of trading and settlement. A new trading channel allows foreign investors to route orders via global brokers through a “representative foreign securities business organization” to domestic securities companies without opening a trading account at a domestic broker, while still requiring a securities trading code and a custody account with a depository member. The circular also sets minimum requirements for the contract and allocates responsibilities between the domestic securities company and the representative foreign organization, including order receipt and routing, controls for same-day buy and sell orders, data management and know-your-customer arrangements. For NPF transactions, settlement failures by foreign institutional investors are no longer subject to market disclosure, but the securities company must report the breach to the Vietnam State Securities Commission, the Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation and the Vietnam Exchange on the day it occurs; the investor is barred from NPF trading for seven consecutive trading days for a first breach and for 180 consecutive days where three settlement breaches occur within 30 consecutive trading days, and Vietnam Exchange member securities companies are notified that the investor must have sufficient cash in the custody account when placing buy orders during the NPF ban. Limits on which stocks can be traded under NPF are removed, with a mechanism to avoid a securities firm taking ownership of its own or related-company shares after an NPF settlement failure by transferring ownership to another securities company’s proprietary account under an agreement, supported by custodian bank blocking and ownership transfer processes. Foreign securities investment fund management companies are additionally permitted to open two trading accounts, one for proprietary trading and one for managing client trading activity.

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