KARACHI: The Central Depository Company (CDC) introduced the deposit functionality through Investor Account Services (IAS), which would help retail investors to deposit their physical securities in the Central Depository System (CDS) directly through their own investor accounts.
While inaugurating the deposit functionality here on Friday, Dr Tariq Hassan, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), praised the role played by the CDC in the development of capital market.
He stressed on the importance of measures required for building confidence of small investors in the market and highlighted that reforms introduced by SECP would go a long way to meet this end.
“A lingering perception exists that a few big players run the market and small investors may lose their savings by entering the ring. The challenge for all of us is to change this perception,” he said.
The chairman said that the government was pursuing a privatisation policy to gradually off-load government shareholding in key state owned enterprises which would broaden the equity base and provide retail investors with an opportunity to participate in the economic development of the country.
He said that CDC, financial institutions, stock markets and brokerage houses had to work hand in hand to attract small savers to the capital market.
He added that the government was hopeful that all such initiatives would serve the aim of attracting more and more people to invest in the capital markets.
Hanif Jakhura, Chief Executive Officer of CDC said that the CDC’s new deposit functionality was another step towards better customer care.
He hoped that with the new service, investors would have complete control over dematerialisation of their physical securities. This, he added, would not only reduce the burden of deposit requests on the participants, but would also offer cost-effective and efficient service to the investors.
He added that the CDC had cut down its tariff rates substantially over the years to deliver the benefits of the electronic system to the investors.
Earlier, Wahab Kodvavi, Chairman, CDC, said that the deposit functionality would give enormous benefits to the retailers as well as the participants, offering one-window service to dematerialise and hold securities under their own control.
