In a move to make investors more knowledgeable for the protection of their securities, Central Depository Company (CDC) has decided to organise awareness seminars in big cities of the country, it was learnt on Thursday. This decision was taken in the light of defaulting brokerage houses of Karachi and Lahore where millions of rupees of investors have been washed away as most of the people don't know about the secure process of investment through sub-account opening at CDC.
According to the official information obtained by Business Recorder, CDC would organise first awareness seminar in Multan on March 16 at ICMAP campus. Second seminar would be held in Faisalabad on March 17, at ICMAP campus, third in Lahore on March 18, ICMAP campus and fourth in Gujranwala on March 19, at a local hotel where the officials of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) would give presentations to the investors on the subject of seminar.
Similarly, awareness seminar would be organised in Islamabad on March 21, at ICMAP campus and on March 22, in Rawalpindi at a local hotel where officials of SECP) and Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) would deliver their speeches on the subject.
In this regard, Shariq Naseem, Assistant General Manager (Marketing), told Business Recorder that CDC is committed to make investments of investors as safe as possible. While investor should also make sure that they have a valid Unique Identification Number (UIN) issued by NCCPL. UIN for individual resident Pakistanis is their CNIC number. He said that no investor can trade without CDC sub-account. While opening a sub-account through broker, investor must read sub-account opening form carefully and ask the broker to give a copy, duly mentioning the sub-account number.
The broker must also keep a copy of CDS account report signed by sub-account holder in his record, ensuring that details entered in CDS are correct and verified by sub-account holder. To ensure that investors have complete control over their securities portfolio, it is strongly advised that they should maintain an account with CDC's Investor Account Service (IAS), he added. He said that CDC offers free-of-cost e-Alerts, e-Statements, and SMS alert services. Investors should ask the brokers to activate these facilities so that every time during the sell or purchase of securities, investor can receive an email or SMS and an e-Statement on monthly basis.
Shariq said that SECP has made mandatory to subscribe either SMS or e-Alerts for all sub-accounts. Therefore, investors are reminded to give registration details, local mobile number or email address to concerned brokers for the purpose of subscription of SMS or e-Alert service before March 31, 2014 in order to avoid any inconvenience. He advised that if any investor wants to ensure the correctness of securities balances mentioned in e-Statement or physical statement received from broker, he can also obtain a CDC sub-account statement against Rs 50/- by simply walking into any CDC office.
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