Vietnam's National Assembly on Friday passed amendments to the country's Securities Law, with 463 of the 464 deputies present voting in favor, creating a regulatory sandbox for new financial technology and cutting paperwork for brokers, custodian banks and listed companies. The changes take effect March 1, 2027, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

For investors in Asia, the vote matters less for any single rule than for the direction it signals. The government framed the bill as a way to cut red tape for market participants, and the revised law gives regulators a formal route to test products that current rules do not cover. It comes after a volatile stretch for Vietnamese equities, including heavy foreign selling in the VN-Index in October.

What the Vietnam Securities Law changes

The centerpiece is a new Article 6a, which sets up a controlled testing regime for the securities sector. Companies will be able to trial new technologies, products, services and business models under limits on scope, participants, location and duration, especially where an innovation falls outside existing regulations, the state news agency reported.

Firms that want to join must meet eligibility conditions, obtain certification and comply with rules on personal data protection and cybersecurity. Authorities will supervise each trial and then decide whether to let it continue or write it into formal regulation.

Finance Minister Ngo Van Tuan presented the government's report on the bill before the vote. The government kept its proposal that the prime minister decide the model for the stock exchange, a question that affects how Vietnam's trading venues are organized and governed.

The law also loosens staffing rules. Only one legal representative of a securities firm will need to meet professional standards, and not every representative will need a practising certificate. Companies get a two-year transition period, or until they change personnel, to comply. Article 97 now spells out three kinds of practice certificates: brokerage, financial analysis and fund management.

Registration for depository services is simplified by dropping some conditions and documents. Requirements on technical capacity, operational safety, segregation of client assets and regulatory supervision stay in place.

A targeted fix, not a rewrite

The bill was narrow by design. When the National Assembly Standing Committee discussed the draft on Sept. 3, Deputy Minister of Finance Ta Anh Tuan said it would amend 23 articles, add one new article and leave 112 articles unchanged, according to Vietstock.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Tien Chau told that session the government would "make targeted and focused amendments while retaining provisions that remain appropriate," Vietstock reported. He said more complex issues would get fuller study, with a roadmap for a broader revision later.

The September draft also removed some conditions for commercial banks and foreign bank branches registering depository operations and for banks chosen as payment banks. It reduced documents for licensing securities firms and simplified initial public offering and additional offering filings so they can be handled electronically. The government described the aim as cutting administrative procedures as far as possible without weakening supervision or investor protection.

At that stage, the sandbox provisions were slated to take effect a year after the rest of the law, on March 1, 2028, Vietstock reported. The Vietnam News Agency's report on the final vote gave March 1, 2027, as the effective date for the law and did not give a separate date for Article 6a.

What investors should watch next

Much of the detail will sit in secondary rules. The government has drafted two decrees, one on the sandbox and one amending Decree No. 155/2020/ND-CP, which sets out detailed rules under the current Securities Law, along with a circular to be issued by the finance minister, the state news agency said.

Those documents will decide how wide the sandbox door opens: which firms qualify, how long trials can run and what happens to investors if a test ends. They will also show whether the lighter licensing and depository rules shorten the time it takes foreign custodians and brokers to set up in the market.

The same sitting on Friday also approved a resolution on the 2025 state budget settlement, with 458 of 461 deputies present voting in favor.

The next fixed date is March 1, 2027, when the amended law takes effect. Before then, the publication of the sandbox decree will be the clearest sign of how quickly new trading and investment products can reach Vietnamese investors.