By Udeme Ekwere

Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011

The Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers has assured its members and market operators that it is looking seriously into the ongoing issues bothering on the recapitalisation of stockbroking firms.

The President, CIS, Mr. Mike Itegboje, who said this on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday, said that CIS was not folding its arms on the issues.

He, therefore, appealed to the stockbrokers to be patient, adding that the Securities and Exchange Commission would be making its position open soon and would clarify issues.

The appeal became necessary, following the reactions of stockbrokers on Monday to announcements of plans by the CIS to hold a workshop aimed at further developing the market operators.

Dealing members on the Exchange had jeered at the CIS officials after the announcement, telling them that they were not showing enough concern on the plight of stockbrokers, especially following the various challenges they were facing from market regulators.

This, therefore, propelled the meeting of the officials of the CIS with market operators in an attempt to reassure them that the CIS was looking into the matter.

Itegboje said, “We have not been folding our arms on the issues, as they affect all the dealing members. We have been discussing with the market regulators on all these issues, especially SEC.

“What we learnt from SEC is that the issue of N1bn capital base for market operators was actually a 2007 news item that was again published recently by a press man. And so, SEC has told us that it will be issuing a press rejoinder to the effect soon.”

He also appealed to the market operators for co-operation, adding that CIS would wholly support regulatory policies that would boost market growth.

Reacting to this, however, a senior stockbroker, who spoke with our correspondent in confidence, said that some brokers were not pleased with the way the CIS had been handling the issue.

He said that the institute had not displayed enough sensitivity to the plight of the brokers, who were being affected by the policies of the regulators. He added that it was important for brokers to hear directly from SEC, if the N1bn capital base was actually an old publication.

“It is good that the CIS seems to have woken up to its responsibility, even though a few of us think this is coming a bit late. This is what we do, and it is our job; so we expect that we should be duly informed and carried along when issues, like this, come up,” he said.

The Director-General, SEC, Ms. Arunma Oteh, had recently said that the regulatory agency was working on plans to reduce the number of stockbrokers, from more than 300 to a manageable size. She added that this was part of SEC’s effort towards sanitising the capital market.

“We have studied some African markets on this issue, and we have seen that it is working for them. For instance, Malaysia did a consolidation, and they have just 35 brokers in a market that is even bigger than the Nigerian capital market. Also, in the South African market, there are 60 stockbrokers with a market size that is 15 times bigger than the Nigerian market in terms of size,” she said.

 

Source: Punch