18 December 2004	Saturday	05 Ziqa'ad 1425

KARACHI, Dec 17: National Clearing Company of Pakistan Ltd (NCC) has modified and enhanced its existing broker-to-broker (BTB) module, allowing membership to banks and other financial institutions to facilitate margin financing transactions scheduled to start from January 1, 2005.

According to a circular issued on December 15, the decision was taken on a proposal of the committee constituted by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to facilitate and develop functionalities and systems for the promotion of margin financing and margin trading.

The committee has submitted its final proposal to the commission for development of separate module on NCSS for recording, clearing and settling of margin financing transactions and recommended implementation date as March 25, 2005.

The SECP has asked the committee, comprising three stock exchanges, Central Depository Company and NCC, to ask National Clearing Company for devising an interim process for facilitating margin financing through NCSS in the shortest possible time.

The committee further submitted a short-term proposal for using existing BTB module with some enhancement for this purpose. Around 30 leading scrips from various sectors have been selected for margin financing trading through BTB module on NCSS with effect from December 2004. -APP