The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has embarked on its journey of digital transformation, end-to-end process automation to improve service quality, promote transparency, and allow all its regulators to have a user-friendly environment in the midst of the era of digital transformation, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the SECP annual report, digital transformation links technology, data science, equipment and business strategy to change the business process or consumer experience.
The Commission has completed a project called LEAP (Leading Productivity by Automation Prowess) under the leadership of SECP, the Policy Board, involving the launch of STR, the replacement of the corporate registry system, the implementation of XBRL and end-to-end process automation.
LEAP will also play an important role in the improvement of Pakistan’s Ease of Doing Business ranking.
The LEAP project is funded by funds from the Financial Inclusion Programme (FIP), a grant to the Government of Pakistan from the UK Government. In order to execute the LEAP project for SECP, the Department for International Development (DFID) has endorsed Karandaaz as its lead implementation partner.
On October 04, 2019, the FIP Steering Committee approved the LEAP Programme. In November 2019, the Commission and the SECP Policy Board approved the signing of a framework agreement between SECP and Karandaaz.
On April 30th, 2020, the first milestone under LEAP, Protected Transaction Registry (STR), went online.
This initiative is in line with the international best practices and methodology of the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index, which aims, in addition to providing a framework for the security of secured creditors, to enhance access to finance for SMEs through the use of their movable assets as collateral.
STR is an electronic database in which financial institutions are able to record on their movable assets the charges or security interests generated by unincorporated entities or individuals. Any individual can check for the current security interests in the movable assets of entities registered in the STR (other than companies). STR is a crucial supporting factor in the National Financial Inclusion Policy of Pakistan (NFIS).
This initiative is expected to usher in a new era of growth for SMEs and is in line with the vision and reform agenda of the government for a vibrant and sound economy. So far, financial institutions have reported more than 105,000 loans in the last five months.
BPR is a business management technique that requires the radical overhaul of key business processes in order to achieve drastic efficiency, turn-around time (TAT) and quality improvements.
The BPR process optimization activity was carried out in which, in collaboration with business departments, the list of business processes was checked and finalized and the list consisting of 245 business processes was classified into seven top-level categories, namely business registration, licensing, filing and compliance, supervision and regulation, adjudication, regulatory approvals and administration
To streamline the scope of the project, process optimization was carried out to turn the business processes into customer trips. The To-Be model (level 1) was designed to represent the future state of registration of the company, centralized licensing and integrated role of supervision. When done, this exercise decreases the complexity of business processes, enhances customer experience, and promotes openness and internal productivity.
