Bourse takes over Ackerman firm

Capital Markets Integrity Corp. (CMIC), the independent market regulation arm of the Philippine Stock Exchange, is taking over the assets of local stockbrokerage I. Ackerman & Co. Inc. (IACI) on capital adequacy concerns.

In a PSE memorandum posted Friday, the bourse noted an advisory about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s order for CMIC to take over the books, records and trade-related assets of IACI.

IACI was founded by the late stock market veteran Irving Ackerman, one of the pillars of the old Makati Stock Exchange. He was a New Yorker who established a stockbrokerage career in the Philippines shortly after World War II. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 87.

The local stockbrokerage, now run by Ackerman’s heirs, was first suspended last May 23 due to some deficiency in accounting reports needed to ascertain its capital adequacy. On June 3, CMIC lifted the suspension order, noting that the brokerage was in “substantial conformity” with its obligations relative to risk-based capital adequacy. In August, the brokerage was suspended anew due to its failure to comply with earlier-prescribed conditions to resume operations.

As a self-regulatory organization, CMIC’s primary mandate is to maintain the integrity of the market and minimize the risk of the investing public by ensuring that the trading participants adhere to all pertinent rules, regulations and code of conduct sanctioned by the CMIC and the PSE, as well as all related legislative and regulatory requirements.

In the case of IACI, industry sources said capital adequacy woes prompted the SEC’s takeover order. Doris C. Dumlao