Rev Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh
REV. DANIEL Ogbarmey Tetteh, Director General of SEC, has underscored the need for the SEC and law enforcement agencies to work together to ensure investor protection by deepening existing partnerships and improving current practices.
He also said together with key agencies such as the EOCO and CID, SEC would continue to work together to ensure market operators respond to their fiduciary duties.
Speaking recently at SEC’s market education programme dubbed ‘Time with the SEC’ in Accra, Rev Ogbarmey Tetteh highlighted some of the recent initiatives that the SEC had undertaken to protect the integrity of the market and investors including the introduction of key guidelines such as the conduct of business guidelines, investment guidelines for fund managers, and licensing guidelines.
He noted that such guidelines were designed to address corporate governance challenges, give effect to the ‘fit and proper’ principle in licensing market operators and provide guidelines for sound investment decisions by fund managers.
In addition, he cited the SEC’s digitisation programme which would facilitate electronic submission of returns by market operators and expedite prompt analysis to support supervision.
He, however, advised that investors should exercise a duty of care to conduct their due diligence on market operators and also ensure that they understand the risk-return characteristics of investment products before investing.
He also indicated that access by investors to relevant information would be enhanced beyond the current color-coding scheme on the SEC website with the plan to establish a Financial Data Centre, which would be a repository of comprehensive investment information to enable all investors to better inform their investment choices.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and Deputy Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Frederick Kwadwo Agyei, who stated that the primary duty of the CID was to investigate crimes and to accomplish this, said the agency needed to build the capacity of its investigators.
He, therefore, welcomed the opportunity for such an engagement and expressed optimism that via this platform, the SEC would also better appreciate the work and mandate of the CID. He expressed the agency’s willingness to continue to work to reduce crime.
Aba Jacqueline Opoku, Deputy Executive Director In-Charge of Monitoring and Intelligence at EOCO, in a comment, echoed the role and importance of a working capital in a developing economy. She cited countries such as Malaysia and Singapore which had used the capital market to develop their nations exponentially.
Mrs. Opoku emphasised that a viable capital depended on effective law enforcement agencies and highlighted the role of EOCO in detecting and preventing economic crimes and taking actions against such criminal activities in collaboration with other agencies.
She mentioned the existing relationship of EOCO with the SEC throughout the recent asset management clean up exercise and concluded by pledging that EOCO would work together with the SEC to bring confidence to the investment community.
Themed, ‘The role of the SEC in the Capital Market’, the presentations centered on the need for partnership with law enforcement agencies; the mandate and regulatory framework of the SEC; an overview of the Capital Market; the regulatory framework, tools, and enforcement powers of the SEC; and understanding the activities of Ponzi schemes.
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