IMF urges SEC to beef up monitoring

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FE Report The International Mone­tary Fund (IMF) Sunday urged the securities regulator to strengthen its surveillance and monitoring activities over the country's stock market, officials said. The fund also stressed on the need for ensuring absolute independency of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) so that the latter formulate and enforce proper market regulations. Two senior economists of the IMF - Rodolfo Maino and Seng Guan - made the call during a meeting with the SEC policymakers at its office. A top SEC official said the IMF also emphasised on the need for maintaining proper co-ordination between the money market and the capital market regulators. "The IMF team told us to widen our monitoring activities by increasing manpower in the SEC," he said. He said the IMF representatives focussed on the independency of the SEC, so that it can act like other capital market regulators across the globe. He said the IMF mainly laid emphasis on three issues -- the SEC's independence, proper co-ordination between the regulators, and strengthening the monitoring activities of the SEC. When asked, whether the IMF delegation made any comment on the Bangladesh Bank's recent decision, taken in line with the stock market rejuvenation package, he said, "The IMF applauded the co-ordination maintained between the SEC and the central bank." Recently, the SEC has moved to employ more manpower. The regulator is also working on the development of a surveillance software with the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). On May 15, Finance Minister A M A Muhith told the FE that the government would not make any interference in the SEC's affairs after the organisation's overhauling. He said the government is recasting the securities regulator in an effort to bring stability in the capital market. The SEC will operate without any interference from his ministry or any other government agency as soon as that goal is reached.