ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), to further speedup the processing and bring uniformity in decision making, has centralized the function of approving applications of company’s name reservation.

This is the first step towards centralization of various regulatory functions, currently performed at company registration offices (CROs). To ensure standard application of law, the complete process of company’s incorporation will be gradually centralised.

Reservation of proposed company name is a first and pivotal step for registration of a company. The Company’s law prescribes key considerations to ensure that a company’s name shall not, in any way, be exploitative of existing companies or susceptibilities of the general public. Thus, there is considerable subjectivity involved in interpretation of the law.

In the decentralized model, approval of company’s name, through respective CROs, was susceptible to arbitrary decision-making. The centralization of name reservation process will ensure that the regulatory objectives are met with increased efficiency while ensuring end-user satisfaction.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021