Exclusive-Vietnam eyes China model to seek index upgrade, boost investment

Vietnam is planning to relax its stock market settlement procedures for foreign investors, a critical measure to convince equity index managers to uprade the country to emerging market status and attract hundreds of millions of dollars of new investment, sources said. Following a China model, Vietnam would allow brokers to vouch for foreign investors when they buy shares, a move that was seen as a progress by the FTSE index provider, and could lead to remove a regulatory hurdle that has hampered for years the upgrade of the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.