SEBON chair Dr. Karki to depart from board with high spirit; Nepalese market and investors to remember Dr. Karki for his several master-strokes in stock market

Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON)'s current and soon-to-be retired Chairman, Dr. Rewat Bahadur Karki, joined SEBON from Kartik 2072 with a tenure of 4 years. This Ashwin his successful tenure will come to an end and a new Chairman will lead SEBON.

In a media statement to review his achievements at SEBON, Dr. Karki reiterates that his stint in Nepal’s stock market was not just of four years, but had actually started when he served NEPSE as its CEO from 2063 to 2065. Thus, some of the achievements from his time in NEPSE and SEBON are:

1. Privatization of NEPSE from a not-for-profit organization to a for-profit organization.
2. Replacement of broker by an expert in the Board of Directors of NEPSE along with trading automation which allowed a 50% cut in brokerage charge levied on investors by the broker.
3. Addition of 27 more brokers to former 23, taking it to a total number of 50 brokers.
4. Introduction of float index and circuit breaker.
5. Implementation of compulsory Demat account and CASBA system making the market more transparent and efficient. This has decreased the time period of IPO to listing from 6 months to 1 month only. Likewise, the IPO allotment has also decreased from 3 months to just one week.
6. The system allowing the investors to apply a minimum of 10 units only and lottery allotment has made the system more inclusive for small investors.
7. SEBON has gained international validity after getting a membership with IOSCO and OECD INFE.
8. Similarly, the brokerage charge has been further cut by 40%.
9. Investors can now access market depth.
10. Provision to add 3 more clearing bank instead of just one.
11. Direct deposit of cash and bonus dividend of shareholders on their bank and Demat account respectively.
12. Capital increment of merchant banks along with the addition of services provided by them.
13. Capital increment of brokers along with the expansion of working area and services via branch establishments.
14. The human resource of SEBON increased by 3 fold along with capacity enhancement in institutional supervisory functions.
15. Release of the open-ended mutual fund.
16. Margin trading service from brokers.
17. Introduction of various packages to attract real-sector companies such as IPO issue at a premium, 15 to 25 percent tax rebate and so on.
18. Transaction charge in OTC has been decreased by 90%.

Similarly, some of the works that are still in pipeline and under progress are:

1. Providing brokers license to banks' subsidiaries.
2. Establishment of regional office and training academy.
3. Providing license to two commodities brokers given the size of the economy and welfare of the investors.

Amendment of Securities Act to improve Board's Institutional Improvement. Along with this other amendments in pipeline are:

1. Broker and merchant banking regulation
2. Mutual Fund regulation
3. Insider trading regulation

Similarly, some important issues under discussion and possibly under soon implementation are:

1. Allowing the brokers to provide dealership and advisory services
2. Consolidation of brokers
3. Provision to reduce conflict of interest in all the organizations
4. Allowing the shareholders to apply for twice as much as they have the right to
5. Adopting book building for public issues
6. Decreasing the lock-in period for project affected local shareholders
7. Allowing Life insurance companies to issue mutual fund schemes

Remaining challenges for coming days:

1. Privatization of NEPSE, introduction of new stock exchange and promote competition
2. Modernization of debenture market thereby making it vibrant
3. Utilization of modern tested software in securities transaction so as to invite the investment of NRNs and foreign investors