Assessing Quality of Financial and Investment Courses

Mdm Speaker, I am taking this question on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of MAS. Mrs Lina Chiam's question refers to training courses which typically claim to teach investment strategies that will give high and consistent profits within a short period of time.

There is a wide range of courses on investments available, from courses charting simple trends to those analysing volatility. There are even courses which would associate stock market movements with the time of the year or with movements of the stars. MAS is not in a position to assess exactly which courses are credible and will make money for consumers. It is also not meaningful to assess the trainers without considering the content of the courses conducted. Ultimately, consumers have to decide whether the course and the trainer can deliver on their promises. Nevertheless, to help consumers, there are two things that MAS intends to do more of.

First, MAS will consider ways to limit the scope for entities to mislead or deceive consumers through false advertising, and, in particular, MAS intends to work with the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore and other Government agencies to tighten the rules on advertising. For courses on financial products in particular, MAS will review its regulatory framework to see how it can be tightened to enhance protection for consumers.

Second, educating consumers so that they can ask the right questions. In this regard, MAS has published, through its national financial education programme called MoneySENSE, a consumer alert on the various "Get-Rich-Quick Seminars" to highlight the key things that consumers should consider before parting with their monies to attend such training seminars. MAS will consider developing further guidance on what consumers should look out for when offered these types of courses, such as checking and verifying the qualifications of those providing the training.

Page: 33

Finally, I would encourage Singaporeans to be wary of promises of high returns that seem too good to be true. Whether they are purported investment schemes, training courses or other avenues for profit, they should be viewed with a dose of scepticism. Consumers should always ask themselves what the catch is.

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Acting Minister for answering my question. I would like to ask a supplementary question. Could MAS take on a licensing role for financial educators? The second question is, could MAS study the potential conflict of interest between financial and training educators and their students where clients would be unduly influenced to appoint related brokers and remisiers?

I think the two questions are somewhat related. So, I would say that for financial professionals who provide advisory services pertaining to specific products like stocks, forex, they are already licensed. MAS already has a licensing framework for that – the Financial Advisory Act, the Securities and Futures Act. There is a licensing framework for these people who provide specific advisory services. But MAS would prefer not to go into regulation of general education and training. That is very broad and we have to start regulating every single provider who provides general training. It will be very difficult for the reasons I mentioned earlier in my reply.

Madam, I am glad that the agencies are working on the advertising guidelines. I would like to ask the Minister whether the process could be expedited because I think it is important for us to come up with the guidelines as soon as possible to minimise the misleading information and misrepresentation in advertisements.

I thank the Member for the supplementary question. Indeed, it is something that we see as important and we will do our best to expedite the process.

Page: 34