SECP harassing stock brokers, says Mandviwalla

Senate Standing committee on Finance and Revenue Chairman Senator Saleem Mandviwalla Friday criticized the recent move of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) against the stock brokers of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). In a statement, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla said that "The SECP is threatening use of NAB and harassing the legitimate stock brokers because of some so-called brokers who were successful in dumping the unassuming clients."
Senator Mandviwalla said, "The threat of NAB will scare the legitimate brokers and the amount of inquiries done by the SECP is creating unnecessary uneasiness among brokers. Reputable brokerage houses have also shut their businesses because the amount of compliance is becoming costly. Even if something is found to be non-compliant, time should be given to fix those non-compliances." The current dilemma of the market where all brokers were told to clear debits and stop charging their clients mark-up on overdraft would have been extremely uneasy, he added.
Mandviwalla said, "There is a desperate need for a viable long-term leverage product which once implemented should not be altered to the benefit of a few brokers. Once a new product implemented first and then brokers were given time to move to the new product as opposed to first cleaning the debits and then waiting for the new product to come." This has caused major hindrances in business and is also one of the reasons for the current volatility in the market, Mandviwalla added.
Senator Saleem Mandviwalla said that "All checks and balances, rules and regulations are already in the PSX but the SECP itself has violated these rules and had been unable to implement them. There is very little help from SECP on regulations they barely give clarifications and are mostly reactive about policies". -PR