Oct 2009 Financial News

Act will dent insider trading

Oct 23, 2009

THE chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Francis Lewis yesterday said the new Securities Industries Act (SIA) will significantly strengthen the commission’s ability to deal with insider trading.

In an interview yesterday at the sixth annual conference of the Caribbean Group of Securities Regulators (CGSR) at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad, Port-of-Spain, Lewis said the Act which was passed in the Lower House recently, would significantly strengthen the SEC’s tools used to monitor the market.

He said SIA will allow regulators across the region to share financial information. “We need to work with other regulators but under some of our laws we were not empowered to share information.

The new law specifically empowers the SEC to ask for information and when asked to share but it must be done in a legally appropriate way. Existing laws limit that co-operation, the new law would empower it,” he said.

Lewis revealed that the value of the security market is a staggering TT$207 billion. “In GDP terms that is about four times the size of the national budget. In terms of banking deposits it is just over three times the size of that.”

“The security markets are large,” he said noting that at five percent interest TT $207 billion could help generate more investment. “Imagine if that market grew at a moderate rate of five percent, that would generate over $10 billion that would help growth and development this country,” he explained.

Even at one percent the securities market will grow by TT$2 billion dollars, he said.

Lewis pointed out that the SEC’s job is to regulate the market. He also pointed out that the demise of CL Financial reinforced the need for regulatory vigilance. “At a time when the market is growing, really growing in value, it reinforced to regulators the need for vigilance and the need to have the tools to do it,” he said.


Source:
Darcel Choy
Trinidad Newsday
Friday, October 23 2009

http://www.newsday.co.tt/business/0,109670.html