ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has directed listed companies to forward electronic copies of quarterly and annual financial statements along with other documents.

As per the requirements under Companies Act 2017, every listed company has to file annual financial statements and other documents (auditors’ report, directors’ report and chairman review report) through post to the corporate sector regulator.

The financial statements often run in hundreds of pages at least.

However, now the SECP has decided that listed companies need to send an electronic copy of the annual financial statements along with other reports to the commission.

“This provision has been added to the Act to ensure effective compliance by listed companies at a reduced cost,” the SECP spokesman said.

The SECP has issued a circular No 24/2017 for electronic transmission of financial reports. To facilitate filers, the commission has designated an email address ‘financial.statements@secp.gov.pk’.

The SECP has further directed listed companies to transmit annual and quarterly financial statements in both ‘PDF’ and ‘MS Excel’ formats via email.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017