SEC seeks EFCC’s support to curb market infractions

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Sunday said it was working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to address some of the infractions affecting the growth of the capital market.

Both organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding as part of efforts to ensure an effective regulation of the capital market and restore investors’ confidence in the market.

The Director-General, SEC, Mounir Gwarzo, stated this when he led the management of the commission on a visit to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.

A statement from the commission quoted Gwarzo to have said that the collaboration with the EFCC was borne out of the fact that the law setting up SEC was limited on issues relating to criminal cases.

According to him, while there is a close relationship between SEC and the EFCC, there is a need for the relationship to be strengthened in order to effectively address infractions in the capital market.

He said, “We are by provisions of our law mandated to protect investors on developing the market, but the way our law is structured, we have limitations over criminal cases. And that is why in the last 10 years, there has been a very great collaboration between both agencies.

“We hope that when this MoU becomes fully operational, it will assist in reducing market infractions to the barest minimum.”

Gwarzo noted that the collaboration with the EFCC had been of tremendous benefit to SEC, especially in the areas of investigation and enforcement.

“One of our agenda is to bring back the retail investors to the market, and there is no way they will agree to return if they are not sure of the safety of their investments,” he added.

In his response, Magu said that the EFCC would continue to provide assistance to the commission in checking the high level of abuse in the capital market.

He said the commission had been instrumental in investigating several cases of fraud in the capital market with recovered funds returned to investors.

Source: http://punchng.com/sec-seeks-efccs-support-curb-market-infractions-2/