Ease of doing business: Government to empower SECP to form special task groups

The government would empower the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to constitute special task groups from the corporate sector for encouraging the use of financial technology in the conduct of their businesses and extend exemptions and incentives for startups. The SECP has proposed a new section 458 A (measures for greater ease of doing business) in the Companies Act 2017.
According to the proposed law, the Commission may implement measures for providing greater ease of doing business, improving regulatory quality and efficiency and facilitating innovation and the use of technology in conducting business by the corporate sector.
The SECP can formalize existing practices through regulations and implementing other measures for attaining international standards of regulatory quality and efficiency for greater ease of doing business.
The commission can specify modes and procedures for enabling greater ease of entry into and exit from the market to startup companies. The SECP would be empowered to constitute special task groups from the corporate sector for encouraging the use of financial technology in the conduct of business.
The SECP can create environments for testing and examining the impact of innovation, new processes or technologies outside the existing regulatory framework including but not limited to crowd-funding, digital assets, Open APIs, Smart Contracts, Cloud based solutions and allowing the establishment and use of regulatory sandboxes.
The Commission would be empowered to encourage the use of technology for providing for meeting regulatory reporting requirements, risk assessment, customer due diligence, the issuance of suspicious transaction reports, keeping records and such other requirements as may be specified to meet anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing standards.
The SECP would have the authority to improve regulatory compliance and specifying proportionate data driven standards for the corporate sector to take measures for cyber security, data sovereignty and algorithm supervision.
The SECP can specify exemptions and incentives under the prevailing laws with the object of fostering innovation, promoting startups and an entrepreneurship ecosystem in line with international best practices and improve regulatory monitoring, reporting, and compliance requirements.
The SECP would have the powers for prescribing such other frameworks as may be notified by the Commission for stimulating innovation and financial inclusion in the conduct of business by the corporate sector through the use of financial technology, regulatory technology and supervisory technology. Provided that the Commission may take such measures prior to the issuance of regulations as it may deemed fit through guidelines, policy papers, frameworks or such other modes or mechanisms, the SECP added.