The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) will make the book-building process more efficient and transparent in consultation with the stakeholders, the commission’s newly appointed chairman said yesterday, stressing for a reforms agenda in the capital markets.
Addressing SECP officers, Zafarul Haq Hijazi said, “We need to bring the IPO [initial public offering] process on a par with the developed markets and all required steps would be taken to encourage investors’ confidence.”
“A web-based system of book-building will be provided through the platform of a clearing company to ensure a more user-friendly, neutral and transparent model,” he said.
The corporate sector regulator had been at odds with stock market brokers who oppose radical changes in the existing trading regimes in the capital markets.
“There are several faults and flaws in trading, but not all such things are ill intended,” said Zafar Moti, a broker in the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE). “The problem with the SECP is that it tries to implement the American system on desi people in one go.”
The SECP is likely to introduce a global concept under which inspections of brokers by the commission, system auditors and the Central Depository Company of Pakistan (CDC) will be replaced by a single comprehensive inspection regime, removing inefficiencies and overlaps.
