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Investment conferences boom to pull in more cash and customers
Holding conferences and meetings has been a growing trend for securities companies to lure new customers.
A recent rush of conferences have been organised by both existing and newly established securities firms on a variety of topics.
Viet Nam International Securities (VIS) last Monday held a conference reviewing the first seven months of the stock market.
On July 30, Vincom Securities and Dai Viet Securities held two separate exchange meetings with their clients to discuss how rising oil prices had impacted the stock market, and to forecast the stock market in the remaining months of the year.
Nguyen Van Quynh, a veteran investor in HCM City, said that the number of exchange meetings and conferences for securities investors has skyrocketed.
"It was hard to find any conferences at this time two years ago. Instead, the securities firms were rushing to launch new technology services. If you could find one, it came from a giant brokerage like Bao Viet Securities or Sai Gon Securities Inc," Quynh said.
But now, investors receive invitations to conferences almost daily, he said, with the invitations coming from different firms, including new firms that investors haven’t even heard of.
Nguyen Mai Phuong, head of the Customers Relation Department in a Ha Noi-based securities firm, said that companies have recognised the benefits of meeting with investors. As a result, they rushed to hold conferences.
"For brokerages, conferences or meetings benefit us by increasing the number of investors," Phuong said, noting that companies could advertise their strengths in securities services to customers through these meetings.
Nguyen Ho Nam, general director of Sacombank Securities, said that holding discussions would also be a chance to update investors with the latest information, instead of letting investors find their own way to sort through often confusing news and reports.
"Investors now absorb many kinds of information spread out on the stock market. Even overseas financial institutions release one-sided reports on our stock market, which sometimes confuses investors," he added.
Conferences held by brokerages partially help calm down investors reacting to the mass of reports, and help stabilise the market, Nam said.
With such a large number of conferences being held, investors are saying that not every conference is proving as useful as organisers advertise.
Veteran investor Quynh recently attended one conference she found particularly useless.
"This meeting was so boring that investors got fed up with asking questions and left half an hour early," she said.
Phuong said that similar content was unavoidable when securities companies were using the conferences as an instrument to attract new customers.
"Recently, securities firms have undergone losses caused by the hard times early this year in the market. Now that the market has warmed up again, they are trying to lure more customers to compensate for the loss, it’s understandable," Phuong said.
She noted that as investors get familiar with conferences, they’ll be able to find better examples serve themselves. She added that brokerage success in attracting new clients will depend on how they can follow investor psychology.
"Vietnamese investors now need more exchange meetings like those local securities firms are offering their clients," said John Nolan, an analyst from a HCM City fund management company. "The contents should be selective and diversified to meet the demands of the market."
Nolan also said that securities firms should put more effort in exchanges between with their clients for maximum effectiveness, avoiding unnecessary expenses for both the firms and investors which could lead to unexpected results.
VNN
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