Time for brokers to make bigger contribution to the revitalisation of the Singapore market
Reduced board lot sizes may largely benefit SGX and the brokers; custody accounts could be an opportunity to alleviate frictions of exercising shareholder rights
[SINGAPORE] When the Malaysian market was booming in the early 1990s, some small-time investors in Kuala Lumpur would informally pool their funds together to purchase shares.
Some of them told me that they formed these loose joint ventures because they didn’t have a lot of spare cash, while others said that they wanted to escape the hassle of having to open their own brokerage accounts. Teaming up with a few friends essentially reduced the frictions and ticket price of participating in the market.
This arrangement seemed to appeal to their human nature too.
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