The Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) is planning to revise the laws necessary to allow the Non Resident Nepali (NRN) to invest in the country’s secondary market.
Unveiling its policy and program for the current fiscal year, the regulator of Nepal’s stock exchange market, Sebon, talked about facilitating the NRN to invest in the secondary market.
To increase the number of investors and to develop the competitive environment for the investors in the capital market, the knowledge, skill, capital, technology and network of the NRNs will be facilitated in the capital market, reads the Sebon’s policy and program.
The NRNs have long been demanding the authorities to permit the Nepalis residing abroad to invest in the country’s secondary market. The board in May had announced to finalize the legal arrangement within three months on this matter. However, the progress on this matter is going at a snail’s pace.
Through its annual programs, the Sebon has expressed its commitment to strictly follow the standards and guidelines of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to help build a fair, transparent and investment-friendly market. This could help increase the participation of the individual and institutional investors, reads the Sebon statement.
The board has also talked about reducing the commissions being taken by the brokerage companies. Likewise, the regulator also mentioned about making necessary arrangements for automatic settlement of the tax that is levied on the bonus shares through cash dividend.
For enterprise development, the Sebon has planned to promote the start ups through facilitating innovative skills based on new products, services, technology and intellectual property. For this purpose, the regulatory body will facilitate capital mobilization via setting up PE/VC Ecosystem while adopting the Signature Policy for the development of the SMEs. To bring into operation the commodity exchange market is among the plans of the Sebon.
Establishing its own data center for effective information dissemination and management of various systems and conducting a study on ‘Enterprise Resource Planning’ for the prompt and technology-friendly environment for the investors are among the annual programs of the board. It has also talked about conducting a study on ‘Integrated Automated Market Surveillance System’ for the effective real time monitoring system.
For an effective addressing of the grievances of the investors, the Sebon will be installing a ‘Centralized Grievance Handling System,’ which will allow access of the investors through a mobile app, reads the Sebon’s annual program.
