Blog Archives

Karachi: 25^th Oct 2023

In its endeavor to facilitate investors and effect ease of doing business, Central Depository Company (CDC) has collaborated again with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for leveraging SBP’s RAAST Payment Gateway to allow mutual fund investors to transfer their investments to the mutual fund bank accounts. This project was mutually initiated by CDC and MUFAP who jointly approached SBP to extend the utility of RAAST payment gateway for facilitating mutual fund unit sales. CDC has developed a framework where it acts as an “Aggregator” and issues a Payment ID, enabling investors to easily purchase mutual fund units by transferring funds to the respective Asset Management Company (AMC) from any bank portal. The transfer of funds is instantaneous and completely cost-free through RAAST’s P2P facility. This project is a roll-out of RAAST’s peer to peer (P2P) payment framework with CDC as the payment aggregator. Three AMCs are already live for the pilot phase, with more in the process of onboarding.

CDC has been actively engaged in the RAAST project since its initial phases and holds the distinction of being the first institution selected to test and implement the framework through its Dividend Disbursement project.

While officiating the event, Deputy Governor SBP – Mr. Saleem Ullah said, “State Bank of Pakistan and CDC share the vision of leveraging new technology to improve process flows in the Financial Markets and create a multidisciplinary network of transparency by replacing old, obsolete and manual processes with innovative tech-based processes. We are pleased that we are mutually collaborating in the realization of our shared vision and have successfully implemented many groundbreaking initiatives together, such as Roshan Equity Investments, Shared KYC and RAAST payment gateway implementations for Capital Market related payment processes.”

Commissioner SECP – Mr. Mujtaba Ahmad Lodhi also honored the event and remarked, “CDC has been consistently working closely with SECP for formulating and refining the Regulatory framework for the mutual fund industry. It is heartening to witness the successful realization of many such pioneering initiatives by CDC, in collaboration with SBP and SECP, and the steady progress towards market development, greater efficiencies and investor facilitation.”

While speaking at the event, CEO CDC – Mr. Badiuddin Akber said, “This project is a step toward implementing the SIP-type model in Pakistan, a model which is already successfully operational in regional peers like India, and has the potential to attract significant investments in mutual funds. We look forward to more collaboration between CDC and SBP in line with our mutual vision of effecting transparency and ease of doing business through digitization and innovation.”

Chairman CDC – Mr. Moin Fudda welcomed the audience and thanked SBP for their continued support in market development endeavors by CDC. The event was attended by Commissioner SECP – Mr. Mujtaba Ahmad Lodhi, CEO MUFAP – Ms. Mashmooma Zehra Majeed, senior executives of the mutual fund industry and significant stakeholders of Pakistan’s financial eco-system, all of whom lauded CDC’s efforts in undertaking this initiative and playing its role for market development.

Karachi: October 5, 2023

To mark the occasion of the IOSCO World Investor Week 2023 (2^nd to 8^th Oct 2023), Pakistan Institute and Corporate Governance (PICG) and Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDCPL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development and implementation of e-Go platform, a groundbreaking digital initiative aimed to empower and facilitate investors/shareholders with the necessary knowledge of their shareholder rights and corporate governance practices. This initiative is in line with SECP’s vision to have more informed and involved shareholders and to protect the rights of minority shareholders. This Corporate Governance digital platform has been envisioned to equip shareholders of corporates and businesses with the necessary information, learning modules, and training resources to promote sound corporate governance practices. The platform will be implemented as a joint venture of PICG and CDC, leveraging the domain expertise of PICG in the realm of corporate governance and the technical and operational expertise of CDC in implementing and operating state of the art national level digital platforms. The MoU Signing Ceremony was held on 5^th October 2023 at the CDC House, Karachi.

At the occasion, describing the features of the upcoming platform, CEO-CDC Mr. Badiuddin Akber said that “This platforms aims to enrich the corporate governance practices in Pakistan by effecting their implementation in true letter and spirit while leveraging the power of technology to provide a convenient, informative and interactive medium for shareholders to learn about and engage effectively in sound corporate governance practices. The system is envisioned to effect the protection of rights of minority shareholders along with active involvement of shareholders in corporate governance decisions. CDC remains committed in its vision for market development and stakeholder facilitation by spearheading the digitization drive.”

Mr. Memosh Khawaja, President CEO PICG, applauded the efforts of CDC in its vision towards stakeholder facilitation and said that this joint initiative will pave the way for the much needed active engagement of shareholders towards corporate governance decisions. Mr. Memosh Khawaja, while addressing the occasion, commented that, “Currently, there is a general lack of awareness and limited understanding among shareholders, especially minority shareholders, regarding their rights in the corporate governance practices, resulting in their reduced participation in decision making, vulnerability to manipulation and exploitation of shareholder rights. The proposed portal aims to foster increased shareholder engagement in governance matters by facilitating greater awareness and knowledge.”

The event was attended by the senior management of both the organizations.  

Karachi: 21^st Sept 2023 With the objective of making investment easier and more accessible for investors in multiple types of assets, CDC has successfully implemented a Centralized Gateway Platform (CGP) under the regulatory impetus of the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).  The CGP solution will help investors in on-boarding for diverse investment avenues (such as stocks, mutual funds, insurance products, etc.) using a centralized platform wherein they can maintain a standardized profile, KYC/AML procedures and leverage the platform to proceed for investment in diverse asset classes without having to undergo repetitive on-boarding processes with each financial institution. Even for any subsequent updates, investors will only update their CGP profile, and CGP will accordingly update all relevant Financial Institutions, thus minimizing investor’s efforts while ensuring synchronization of information in a seamless manner.

As a unique initiative in Pakistan’s financial landscape, “The Centralized Gateway Portal” has been formally inaugurated by the Federal Minister for Finance—Dr. Shamshad Akhtar and Honorable Chairman SECP—Mr. Akif Saeed in a launch ceremony at CDC House, Karachi, on the 21^st of September 2023. The solution has been implemented by CDC with the support of other entities, including PSX, NCCPL, MUFAP, IAP and PSBA. The platform is envisioned to greatly help financial institutions by reducing the costs and complexities associated with onboarding their clients. CGP’s features include state-of-the-art tools for KYC/CDD and a uniform, synchronized and latest KYC and AML framework with AI based algorithms. It will provide financial service providers with the indicative risk rating to help them in making informed decisions. The CGP will function as a centralized repository for all data and documents, and eliminate the requirement for Financial Institutions to retain the documents with them, thereby reducing their storage requirements.

While officiating the event, Honorable Federal Minister for Finance & Revenue—Dr. Shamshad Akhtar said, “The Centralized Gateway Platform, which has been implemented as a centralized investor on-boarding platform, is a very important and timely initiative by SECP and very well executed by CDC. It is very important for our economy that we should introduce such novel concepts which will promote the investment culture in Pakistan and provide an easy and standardized platform to enable the investors to make hassle-free on-boarding in their respective investment journeys, while eliminating cumbersome and repetitive processes.”

While addressing the occasion, Mr. Akif Saeed—Chairman SECP said, “It is indeed a very important milestone for the Pakistan’s financial landscape to have a consolidated on-boarding platform. The solution is a technology-based enabler that, along with investor education and awareness and independent securities advisors, should increase the depth and breadth of our market. Once successfully implemented, it can be expanded to the entire financial sector. Capital market infrastructure institutions like CDC, NCCPL & PSX need to focus on initiatives that make our market transparent, vibrant and robust.”

Mr. Moin Fudda, Chairman of CDC’s Board of Directors, gave a welcome address to the guests. At the occasion, while describing the objectives of the platform, Mr. Badiuddin Akber—CEO CDC said, “In line with international best practices, the Centralized Gateway Platform has been developed by CDC with the vision to effect ease of doing business and promote the investment culture by leveraging a centralized source of information, screening and subsequent profile updates. CDC will continue to play its role as an ENABLER and is committed towards providing innovative tech-based platforms to Pakistan’s financial landscape, through which all stakeholders can leverage CDC’s technological edge to scale their efficiency and outreach.”

The event was also attended by significant stakeholders of Pakistan’s financial eco-system, all of whom lauded CDC’s efforts in undertaking this initiative and playing its role for market development.