adminTHE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange’s (ZSE) Central Securities Depository will be up and running before the end of the year, an official has said. Establishment of the central securities depository (CSD) is part of on-going efforts to modernise the local bourse which are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014.
A securities depository is a financial organisation with a wide range of responsibilities but its core function is holding securities in electronic form, enabling easy transfer of shares during trading.
The CSD will enable the ZSE, which is currently using a manual system involving share certificates, to conduct paperless trading in line with global trends.
Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe chairperson Mrs Willia Bonyongwe said Chengetedzai, the company tasked with setting up the CSD, was already at work.
“They are currently testing the systems and I am assured that by year end, our Central Securities Depository will be running,” she said.
The SECZ chairperson has previously said the current manual system was not transparent and could be manipulated to the disadvantage of investors.
Mrs Bonyongwe said full automation of the bourse was anticipated by the end of the first quarter in 2014. Automation was part of a whole range of initiatives which SECZ was pushing to improve the capital markets to attract new investors.
“Capital flows where there is good corporate governance adherence,” she said.
ZSE chief executive Mr Alban Chirume has said automation was likely to result in an increase in the volume of shares traded on the bourse as well as make it more liquid.
Even government is hoping that automation and improvements in the regulation of the capital markets will result in significant foreign investment flows. – New Ziana
Online Reporter