MEMBERS of the Institute of Capital Market Registrars (ICMR), at the weekend,appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to sign into law the bill establishing the institute.President and Chairman of council of ICMR, Mrs. Lola Oyebadejo, made the appeal at the third yearly conference of the institute, inLagos.Welcomingmembersto the two-day event, Oyebadejo said the purpose of the conference was to x-ray the dynamics of market performance occasioned by the seemingly unusual happenings in the financial system and the avalanche of new rules introduced by the regulatory authorities.Oyebadejo explained that theinstitute would continue to train and retrain professional registrars, adding that they are the ultimate custodians of the nation's capital market.In his presentation at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar Onyema, appealed for the cooperation of the institute in the task of building a virile stock market for the Nigerian economy.Represented by Mohammed Momoh, Head of Brokers and Dealers Regulation, Onyema said,'We are all stakeholders on this project. It behoves us to bequeath a strong capital market to future generation of Nigerians.'Onyema also asked the institute to regularly review and fine tune its processes in a bid to nip in the bud any unwholesome practices in the capital market as exemplified in unauthorised sale of investors' shares, pilfering of dividend warrants among others.He said over time, they have observed that many unauthorised sales of investors' shares succeed with the active connivance of registrars, adding that this was partly the reason why the various electronic products ' e-bonus, e-dividend, e-IPO were introduced.Speaking further, Onyema said, 'While I agree there are challenges that you face as registrars, I would desire a collective resolution of the problems pose by trying to verify certificates owned by the sick, weak and elderly people, the unresolved issue of huge unclaimed dividends in the books of listed companies, the cumbersome process involved in transfer of shares held by estates of the deceased among others while not negating your responsibility for risk prevention.'He also asked the institute and its members to continually develop methodologies that will provide satisfaction to investors in the area of fast-tracking the processes of share verification and lodgments.He said the NSE have adopted a multi-departmental approach to quotation drive considering that their branch network is providing a geographical coverage geared towards increasing the number of quotable companies and instruments listed in the market.
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