Overall openness is expected to improve, signaling a broader market-friendly stance without relaxing existing ownership caps.

Market observers believe the reforms address FTSE Russell’s concerns and should attract stronger foreign inflows, improving liquidity and foreign trading activity.

The upgrade and liberalization efforts reflect ongoing reforms since 2018, including steps to loosen foreign ownership restrictions for select listed companies.

The new Circular 08/2026/TT-BTC introduces four major changes: foreign investors can place orders via global brokers without local trading accounts; non-prefunding rules end publicly naming failed trades and impose internal penalties for settlement breaches; local securities firms can accept non-prefunded orders for their own or related-party shares to aid index replication; and foreign fund managers may open two accounts (proprietary and client asset management) concurrently.

Analysts project the reforms will remove key hurdles and activate medium- to long-term foreign capital flows.

Vietnam is set to be upgraded from frontier to secondary emerging market status this year, with a full upgrade to emerging market status anticipated in September, broadening eligibility for Vietnamese equities and potentially activating interim review as early as March.

Analysts and market watchers expect the upgrade to boost foreign participation and could trigger sizable ETF inflows, with ACBS Research citing a reference scale that could translate to hundreds of millions in investments.

The policy shift aims to reduce technical barriers to attract medium- and long-term foreign capital, while foreign ownership limits remain unchanged.

Vietnam has eased foreign access by allowing purchases through international brokerages, removing the need to open local trading accounts.

The emerging market upgrade could unlock up to about $6 billion in capital inflows and place Vietnam alongside major peers in this category.

Market observers, including experts from VPBank Securities, view the reforms as lowering barriers and increasing accessibility for foreign investors.

The market reaction to the circular was positive for securities firms’ shares even as the VN-Index slipped the following day.