ETF product: SECP board approves regulatory changes in PSX rule book

The Policy Board of the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Tuesday approved necessary regulatory changes required in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) rule book to facilitate the operations of the Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) product in Pakistan.
The meeting headed by SECP Policy Board Chairman Khalid Mirza was held at the SECP Headquarter.
The Policy Board highly appreciated the efforts made by the new SECP chairman in implementing various decisions of the Board.
The annual accounts of the SECP were also presented before the Policy Board for approval. The changes in the budget of the SECP were approved and amended accounts would be presented in the next meeting of the SECP Policy Board to be held on September 27.
Under the chairmanship of Khalid Mirza, the meeting was attended by all private sector members, SECP chairman and SECP members and senior government officials from different departments including Law Division and Ministry of Commerce. The official from Ministry of Finance did not attend the meeting.
The main agenda of the meeting was the discussion on the ETF for which the revised regulatory framework is needed to create enabling regulatory conditions for the product.
On the conclusion of Policy Board meeting, Khalid Mirza told Business Recorder that it is now likely that the ETF will come into play in the stock exchange which will be a great boom for the capital market.
He added that a lot of pending issues of the SECP have been cleared by the SECP Policy Board meeting.
When contacted, a stock market expert said that the Exchange-Traded Fund is a part of the ETF plan to give rise to the number of retail stock investors at the top Pakistani bourse. The derivative product called ETF will allow general investors at the PSX to buy and sell in the same traditional way which has been in place for years. An ETF would represent the value of a basket of listed companies instead of the traditional methodology which allows a stock to symbolize the ownership in a single company.