SECP body approves renewal of licences of four brokerage houses

Upholds decision on non-renewal of licences for remaining two brokers

ISLAMABAD: The oversight committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) policy board has taken notice of non-renewal of licences of six brokerage houses.

Following a review, four of them have been permitted to get their licences renewed.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had cases against two of the brokerage houses cleared for renewal - Access Global Securities and Adam Securities - which were withdrawn after the oversight committee directed the SECP to conduct an in-house investigation.

The licences of two brokerage houses have been approved for immediate renewal while approval for the remaining two brokerage houses would be given following clearance by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

However, the committee has upheld the decision on non-renewal of licences of the remaining two brokers.



According to sources, the oversight committee made the decision in an important meeting aimed at comprehensively reviewing the issue of non-renewal of licences of the six brokerage houses.

Sources revealed that earlier the SECP renewed licences of 219 out of 225 brokers while licence renewal for Access Global Securities, Adam Securities, WE Financial Securities, Pervez Ahmed Capital, Deen Capital and Zafar Moti Securities was withheld.

To deal with the matter, the oversight committee called a meeting to discuss and comprehensively review the reasons for the non-renewal of licences of the six brokerage houses.

After inspection, the committee approved the renewal of licences for Access Global Securities and Adam Securities and directed the SECP to get NAB cases withdrawn against them and launched inquiries on its own.

The committee also gave conditional approval for the renewal of licences of two other brokers - WE Financial Securities and Pervez Ahmed Capital Lahore - provided clearance from being listed as a defaulter came from the SBP.

However, the committee maintained the decision of not renewing the licences of Deen Capital Securities and Zafar Moti Securities.

The committee, while reviewing the cases, noted that an agent of Zafar Moti Securities had reportedly indulged in malpractices and fraudulent activities due to which the licence of his brokerage house was suspended, sources said.

They added that as per a senior member of the committee, the review was made on merit and in future the licences would be renewed automatically.

"However, the SECP is empowered to take action against any broker found to have been involved in gross violations of rules," the sources said. "Brokerage houses not complying with the guidelines, rules and regulations may see action by the SECP including cancellation of licences."