The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Nasdaq is looking to tighten rules for small Chinese listings in the wake of a growing number of pump-and-dump scams. The Globe's Mariya Postelnyak writes that Nasdaq proposed new rules last week requiring companies operating primarily in China to raise $25-million in an initial public offering to go public on the stock exchange (all figures U.S.). The regulations are pending approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also proposed raising the minimum float -- the shares of a company available for public trading -- for future listings to $15-million from $5-million. Faster delistings for companies that no longer meet listing standards were also included in the proposed new rules. The focus on small Chinese companies may be more political than practical. Most of the problems emerge from secondary markets, where scammers trade in, promote and manipulate legitimate securities, using them as a vehicle for their fraud by bumping up their value through Facebook ads or WhatsApp groups. Nasdaq has less than 10 per cent of its listings where the companies are headquartered in Hong Kong or China, but 70 per cent of suspected criminal activity pertained to Chinese companies.