Efforts by the Securities Commission and the Guyana Association of Securities Companies and Intermediaries Inc (GASCI), commonly referred to as the Stock Exchange to generate enhanced public interest in capital markets are designed to open up potentially lucrative avenues for investments and savings, according to GASCI General Manager George Edwards.
Briefing Stabroek Business earlier this week following the conclusion of a two-month training programme titled ‘Introduction To Capital Markets’, Edwards said that broadening the base of knowledge of capital markets both among potential investors and persons associated with business houses and brokerages was a priority which the Securities Commission and GASCI had set themselves.
The July 14 to September 21 programme attracted participants from three of the companies currently trading on the local Stock Exchange: Banks DIH Ltd, Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry and Sterling Products Ltd. Representatives of local registered stockbrokers including Beharry Stockbrokers and Hand-in-Hand Trust Corpora-tion also attended the training programme.
Edwards told Stabroek Business that understanding capital markets as an aspect of the financial services industry was important to understanding the modern economy. According to the GASCI General Manager, the financial services industry plays a critical role in providing resources for the productive sector and also in helping to mobilize savings, moving those savings from those who possess them in excess, to those who need.
The GASCI training programme covered a range of issues pertaining to capital markets including an analysis of securities markets, the Stock Market Index and how it works, portfolio management, the role of financial analysis and the legal framework governing the securities industry.
According to Edwards, while capital markets do not seek to rival banks, they provide an important facility for long-term financing and the accumulation of savings. “With the commercial banking system you pay interest on loans even when no profit is made. In the case of capital markets dividends are payable only when a profit is made.”
Edwards said he believed that the two-month training programme could have been better supported, given the need for the institutions that had been invited to attend to secure a more informed understanding of capital markets. He said that since the course covered elements relating to market monitoring and financial fraud he considered it fit that representatives of the Guyana Police Force and the judiciary attend the programme. “We were disappointed that they did not attend,” Edwards said.
Meanwhile, Edwards disclosed that agreement has been reached between the Securities Commission and the University of Guyana under which a second course will be run in conjunction with UG. “The course will be an accredited course with examinations and we hope to attract people whose professions relate to the course content. Apart from the fact that the course, on its own, attracts a certificate, it can perhaps be used as an elective in some other programme, like a management degree, for example.”
Fourteen companies are currently traded on the local Stock Exchange and the recently concluded two-month course addressed the range of Stock Exchange rules which are premised on the Securities Industry Act and Regulations and include rules for the administration of the exchange, code of conduct for members, financial and accounting requirements for members, requirements for the listing of companies’ securities, trading rules and operations and payment of fees, charges and levies by members.
