BSE suspends Stockbrokers Botswana
Pauline Dikuelo | Thursday September 1, 2016 18:00
According to a statement released by SBB, they have requested for the suspension due to substantial accounting backlog, which dates back six months.
“Our accounting function was dysfunctional due to absence of a substantive finance manager for a period of six months which resulted in accounting backlog. We felt it’s necessary to halt all trading activities until the backlog is fully addressed,” read part of the statement.
In addition, SBB noted that the new finance manager identified awaits completion of the vetting process by Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) assuring their clientele that normal trading will resume once they have fully addressed all the issues.
However BSE CEO Thapelo Tsheole said that through the agreement that was done in collaboration with NBFIRA, they have decided to suspend them effective Wednesday this week pending investigations.
“After the agreement with the regulator, we have decided to suspend them from trading activities which include the buying and selling of shares on the stock exchange while investigating them,” he said.
In the meantime, Tsheole assured account holders that their holdings are still intact and should approach any of the three BSE brokers namely Imara Securities, Motswedi Securities and African Alliance if they are trading.
In addition, Tsheole also assured investors who have been dealing with SBB that this would not affect their assets as usually their assets are segregated from those of the firm. However, he advised investors who have already placed orders and paid for shares upfront to approach SBB to get a refund and go to a broker of their choice to place orders.
“Investigations will reveal whether we reinstate the trading licence or we revoke it. This was an issue that we have been closely looking at and by Wednesday we took an action and suspended them,” he added.
The CEO said this was not the first suspension to be done on stock brokers noting that usually it is done due to non-compliance with rules and regulations, operational issues, administration and governance issues. He added that they usually monitor how brokers operate to see if they are complying, noting that they also request them to send their quarterly accounts to BSE and NBFIRA to be evaluated.
“We usually conduct random checks in all these brokers to see if they are abiding by the bourse’s rules and regulations,” he noted.
SBB was incepted about 26 years ago with a mission to create wealth for their clients and shareholders whilst attracting investment into the country by facilitating the trading of securities and provision of reliable and financial market intelligence.