SEC to make telephone records of orders mandatory
View(s):Taking a tough stand against wrongdoing in the past by traders that went unchecked or was covered up, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to make the use of a telephone recording system for stock brokers mandatory, a SEC official said.
Though this was incorporated into the stockbroker rules in August 2012 by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) which stipulates that brokering houses use a telephone recording system to record clients’ order instructions and maintain these records for at least six years, it has not been properly implemented.
The SEC official said that as per the CSE rules the stockbrokers have the option to obtain written instructions from clients and maintain these records for at least six years, but now the SEC wants to make this rule mandatory as the regulator has received many complaints pertaining to client – broker transactions which dispute certain instructions from clients and irregular transactions.
Currently NDB Stockbrokers and Capital Alliance use a telephone recording system. The CSE rules also say that a stockbroker firm shall not effect transactions in a discretionary account unless the client has given prior written authorization to the stockbroker firm to effect transactions for the client without the client’s specific instructions and that such written authorization given by the client shall clearly state the investment objectives of the client.