The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) will develop a roadmap under the Capital Market Development Plan (CMDP) in co-ordination with commercial banks for enabling investors to apply for IPOs online/electronically to facilitate investors. The SECP will introduce measures for introducing technology and automation under the plan.
The SECP said that realizing the need to keep the capital market abreast of latest trends in technology and to deliver the benefits of low cost, ease of access and reduced turnaround time provided by automation, a number of measures will be undertaken which are summarised as follows: A road map will be developed in co-ordination with commercial banks for enabling investors to apply for IPOs online/electronically to facilitate investors by giving them benefits of automation and reduced turnaround time involved. Given that e-dividend is an efficient and economical way of payment of cash dividend as it saves time and cost of both the companies and shareholders, it would be made mandatory for issuers to offer e-dividend facility to their shareholders.
Efforts will be made through relevant legislation to prohibit physical issuance of securities and require all issued capital to be in dematerialized form, to do away with the numerous problems attached with physical shares. To assist in effective compliance and promote automation and standardisation, all capital market intermediaries will be required to submit all information about their financials to the SECP through an online reporting system. Software requirements, vendor requirements and IT and data security requirements will be standardised for securities brokers.
Accordingly brokers will be required to use only such software, electronic system or applications for the purpose of trading, risk management, clearing and settlement, and preparation of books and accounts that meet certain prescribed minimum specifications. Further requirements will be introduced for eligibility of software vendor and data security to ensure standardisation and transparency. The SECP e-services would be extended to enable and facilitate the beneficial owners of listed companies to also file their returns of beneficial ownership and tenderable gain reporting electronically, the SECP added.