Key strategic focus areas for the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe - a presentation from the 2014 Imara Investor's Conference.

1. Key Strategic Focus Areas for
the Securities and Exchange
Commission of Zimbabwe
Tafadzwa Chinamo
CEO
Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe

2.  Improve the Commission’s effectiveness in
fulfilling its mandate of providing investor
protection and ensuring safe, efficient and
transparent capital markets
 Underpins a sharper vision of the future for
SECZ and maps out a clear set of goals and
action plans for taking SECZ forward

3.  Development of a complete and
comprehensive regulatory framework and its
enforcement
 The goal is to strengthen the SECZ to
anticipate and respond to the new challenges
of the fast-changing, technologically-driven
global financial markets.

4.  Investor Protection
 Sound Regulatory Environment
 Investor Education
 Modern Operating Systems and Structures
 Management of Human Resources, Information
and Financial Capital
I will focus on the first four in this presentation.

5.  SECZ has established that minority
shareholders need the Commission’s protection
against issuers and market players
 There have been too many occasions where the
interests of issuers result in actions that violate
the rights of minority shareholders
 Failure by the Commission to offer vulnerable
groups protection will result in loss of
confidence in the capital markets

6. The SECZ has to address investor protection with
the following objectives:
1. Reduce abuse of minorities by dominant
shareholders or owner managers who push
through their agendas regardless of the
destructive effects such transactions tend to
have on long term shareholder value and
company viability; Dubious delistings, conflicted
transactions,

7. 2. Curb the prevalence of executives employing
short-term strategies aimed at propping up
share prices in order for them to benefit in
personal deals leveraged on the company’s
assets; (needless share buybacks)
3. Compel issuers to disclose more fully their
companies’ state of affairs so that investors
can make informed investment decisions
(profit warnings, cautionaries)

8. The Commission is relatively new and still
developing as a world class regulator
Development will require that the Commission
continuously re-examines and where necessary
make improvements to the securities laws it
administers
To effect its mandate as an effective capital market
regulator SECZ needs to do the following:

9. 1. Strengthen it’s authority and powers by
continually developing securities rules and
regulations;
2. Partner other regulatory bodies and relevant
arms of government to eliminate regulatory
arbitrage and improve corporate governance;
3. Contribute to amending pieces of legislation
and practices that are now out sync with modern
dictates;
4. Clarify roles and responsibilities of SROs.

10. With such a vast spectrum of persons plying our
capital markets it is important that the rules and
dynamics of the game are equally familiar to all.
 It is the Commission’s duty to ensure that
everyone active in the market has a minimum
knowledge and understanding of the products
and services offered
Educated investors are better able to protect
themselves thus improving market efficiencies
and encouraging wider participation

11. The commission will therefore be:
 Running programs to educate investors, players,
issuers and law makers; (reach 95% of all
investors, workshops)
 Empowering shareholders to become active and
fight abuses by dominant shareholders and
company executives (double attendance and
participation of minority shareholders at AGMs
etc, quarterly newsletter)

12.  The backwardness of the systems and structures
of our capital markets is cause for a lot of the
problems the Commission is having to battle
 Poor systems limit the product and service
offering
 Without better operating platforms confidence
on our market will always be subdued with no
new issues to speak of

13. The Commission is therefore playing its part in:
 Making it a priority that the ZSE automates its
trading platform and a CSD is established;
 Becoming a member of IOSCO. In turn the SECZ
will compel the ZSE and the CSD to be members
of their global industry bodies;
 Ensuring that the ZSE is restructured to reflect a
modern day exchange and that demutualisation
happens.

14. END