The government is all set to launch a digitized platform for investors/brokers community in April. The move has come in order to facilitate the investors in the country.
While speaking to the media, the Chairman Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Farrukh Sabzwari said, “National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited is scheduled to launch the Centralized Know Your Customer Organization (CKO) from the first week of April 2019, which will make account opening, closing and shifting from one broker to another easy.”
The CKO Regulations were finalized in 2017, however, they are yet to be implemented as they faced resistance from the brokers as they feared that their clients would easily shift to another broker. CKO is to also streamline several flaws related to money laundering laws in the stock market.
Speaking on the occasion he added, “The opening of an account with the brokers will be made easy as there will be biometric verification of the client anywhere in the country, which will make opening the account easy.”
Through the centralized biometric data with NPCCL, checking the client’ working with any brokers will be easy for the regulatory bodies. The clients will also benefit as the KYC process will have to be performed only once and if the customer shifts brokers, the central data at NCCPL would be used to fill the KYC form with the other brokers.
Furthermore, under the CKO regime, the trading account opening form and sub-account opening form are to be merged into a standardized and simplified Customer Relationship Form (CRF).
In the first phase, the NCCPL is to provide centralized KYC services to the brokerage and mutual fund industry. The second phase will extend the same to the investors of the commodity market and insurance sector.
