KARACHI: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s (SECP) and the stockbrokers association on Wednesday failed to make any headway after the body refused to budge from its stance over the proposed changes.

During the meeting, the Pakistan Stockbrokers Association (PSA) refused to share their concerns with SECP Commissioner Shauzab Ali as the talks between the two sides turned sour.

The deadline for public comments regarding the new regime will expire on Jan 24.

Meanwhile, a senior SECP official said the brokers came unprepared, and there was no concrete discussion over the subject.

“The small stock brokers have been informed about the requirements of the current international scenario, the needs of the Financial Action Task Force and other anti-money laundering regulations that the country has to abide by,” said a SECP official who attended the meeting.

He added that the small brokers were informed that they cannot operate stock business ‘like a family-owned shop’ because the international obligations on the country have evolved.

“The main issue is that they are the custodians of public money in the shape of shares,” the official said while adding that “besides, asset management was an issue and it was a routine matter that money of one investor was used to invest in other’s shares, proper disclosures too were a matter of concern.”

The SECP team told brokers that there were only 225,000 investors in the PSX, and “people still call the stock market as ‘satta bazaar’ etc only because there was limited trust in the stock exchange among the ordinary citizens.”

The officials said the concept note over the new brokers’ regime was circulated in November 2019 and the deliberations of small brokers as well as the large players in the stock market were accommodated.

The small brokers belonging to Lahore and Islamabad have already submitted their input over the new concept. Their primary concerns were related to operational clarity after the regime was implemented.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2020