Business
SEC Releases New Guidelines On Securities Settlement
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released a new set of guidelines on securities settlement to boost efficiency of market infrastructure in the country.
In a statement released on its website on Monday, the Commission said that the objective of the guidelines was to promote competitiveness, efficient, safe and sound post-trading arrangements in Nigeria’s capital market with a view to restricting systemic risk.
The statement added that “the main aim of the guideline is to promote competitiveness, efficient, safe and sound post-trading arrangement in Nigeria. This should ultimately lead to greater confidence in the securities markets and in turn limit systemic risk”.
The statement stressed that the commission agreed that at the end of each day’s transaction in the Exchange Traded Securities (ETS) the clearing settlement agent generate the financial obligation of each dealing member firms and sort the financial position of the dealing member firms based on their respective settlement banks to arrive at net position per settlement bank.
“That on settlement day, the clearing settlement agent shall update the record of the investor with the registrar and the dealer member firms shall update the cash accounts of their respective investors with proceeds from the trade less commission”.
The statement further added that “with respect to investors payment procedures, dividends and interest payment, customers account should be credited with proceeds from the sale of their securities directly into their bank account and registrar shall pay dividend to investors electronically on the due date”.
The commission said that securities transaction must trade or be reported through a licensed exchange in line with the standard settlement guidelines, adding that it would continue to collaborate with the nation’s apex bank (CBN) to effectively provide the needed oversight functions on securities settlement systems in the country and apply the appropriate sanctions on defaulting firms on the new guidelines.