Since last year, when the government made it compulsory for dividends to be deposited directly into the shareholder’s account, we, the senior citizens, have been having problems determining the company whose dividend has been credited into the account. This is so because the entry in the bank’s statement reads: “ATM-IBFT Funds Transfer, FR: Bank”. For a person who has investment in multiple scripts, it is not possible to know from where the amount has come.

On Nov 5, I received a credit of Rs306,000 with the particulars reading “ATM-IBFT Funds Transfer, FR: Bank”. Till now I do not know which company’s dividend it is and I will not know about it till I receive the dividend counterfoil. And, one does not know when it will come.

I approached the Federal Board of Revenue, the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the Central Depository Company and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) for help, but to no avail. Finally, I wrote to an officer at the SECP on whose intervention I started receiving from some companies their names along with the message. But, as just mentioned, it is only from some companies.

I would suggest to the authorities concerned and the companies that if the name of the company is required to be shortened, only the security symbol can be used instead of the full name of the script.

Hoshidar Kotwal
Karachi

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2020