The Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is determined to keep reform policy continue at the local bourses. This was stated by SECP Chairman Razi-ur-Rehman while inaugurating the newly-constructed building of the Central Depository Company of Pakistan (CDC) located at Shahrae Faisal here on Saturday.
He said the SECP was working on CFS mkII to end the liquidity crunch from the equity market, adding for this purpose, the SECP has constituted a special team.
Razi-ur-Rehman said: "The CDC has been working proactively with the SECP in deploying our capital market reform programme as regulators of the market.
Keeping up growth pattern and evolution of its services to better serve the market, it has also kept its focus on investor education through all media, like publications, electronic media campaigns and investment road shows in distant cities of the country to educate existing and potential investors."
Acknowledging the suggestion of Central Depository Company CEO Hanif Jakhura to ensure complete dematerialisation of physical certificates by persuading all listed companies that are not live for the purpose of CDC's Central Depository System (CDS) to join CDS, Razi-ur-Rehman assured the gathering to fairly consider it in the better interest of the market.
Congratulating the CDC team on their efforts for the development of capital market, he remarked that he was greatly pleased to see "CDC etch its significance in concrete, having made its presence felt as a visionary and responsible company of the capital market infrastructure."
In his welcome address, CDC Chairman Basheer Janmuhammad said that the CDC House is a monument of CDC's accomplishments as an organisation and symbolised the futuristic outlook of the company. It was high time for CDC, being a revolutionary infrastructure company of the capital market, to assert its separate identity and unique position among the market players.
He congratulated the CDC team on its efforts to pave the way for the capital market's progress, and the CDC House "a well-deserved environment for a responsible company that is committed to its cause."
Hanif Jakhura said: "The CDC House is the image of our aspirations as a team. The form is a reflection of our core values - transparency, efficiency, integrity and reliability; the structure, an embodiment of our strength, and the ambience lends an insight to our environment."
Reflecting on the design of the CDC House, Jakhura said that it is installed with state-of-the-art technology, security systems and many other modernly designed purpose-built facilities representing innovation as an integral part of our mission.
Recollecting the growth of the CDC over the years, he remarked: "The CDC has come a long way on the road to its progress from being an elementary depository company to an institution of a national significance in a span of less than a decade.
He was confident that a phenomenal growth in CDC's customers as well as the general market investors is in the offing given tireless efforts by the CDC team to educate present and potential investors all over the country.
About the overall progress of the CDC, he said that CDC is moving ahead 'with a vision to usher in the capital market into the information age where investors are effectively managing their portfolios in a market that is becoming increasingly efficient and transparent. "The CDC House is a landmark heralding that we are not very far from realising this vision", he added.
Earlier, the SECP chief inaugurated the CDC House, the head office of the Central Depository Company of Pakistan located at the main Sharae Faisal by cutting a ribbon. Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) Chairman Zafar A. Khan, former KSE chairman Yasin Lakhani, Arif Habib, Jahangir Siddiqui, Zafar Moti, and other personalities from the capital market were present on the occasion.