Board representation of small PSE brokers halved

The Securities and Exchange Commission has allowed the Philippine Stock Exchange to tweak guidelines for the nomination and election of board members so as to allot only a single seat representing small brokers.

In line with the SEC’s directive, the PSE has extended the deadline for nomination of its directors to April 10. The extension of the nomination period was meant to “enable parties concerned to reevaluate their plans and options for the forthcoming annual meeting and election,” the SEC said in its order dated April 4.

Elections for the PSE board will be held during the 2013 PSE annual stockholders’ meeting slated on May 18.

The SEC’s letter was issued after it approved last week the amendments sought by the PSE’s nomination and election committee (Nomelec) which stated that “there shall be one seat allocated to a broker belonging to category B.”

The Broker A category refers to brokers with more than P4.4 billion in combined market turnover and paid-up capital, while those with less belong to the Broker B category.

In the earlier version approved by the SEC, it was stated at least 10 percent of winning broker-directors should belong to Category B which means there could be more than one small broker representative who could otherwise be elected to the board. On the other hand, this revision allowed by SEC has only one fixed allotment for Category B.

The PSE said that reserving only one set to Category B will comply with the requirements of the Securities and Regulation Code that brokers be proportionately represented in the PSE board based on paid-up capital and value turnover.