The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, has urged the new board of Securities and Exchange Commission to embrace innovation in order to be better prepared to regulate a dynamic capital market.
Edun, who stated this during the inauguration of the board in Abuja, yesterday, expressed excitement at the composition of the board and urged the members to put in their best, be courageous, bold, open to innovation and be willing to accept the challenge of regulating new areas.
The minister stated that financial technology and communications were areas that are fast advancing, and with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, digital currency among others, there was need for thregulator to be knowledgeable to be able to provide guidance and necessary approvals.
According to him, “the top minds go into finance, they go into technology because in the basic industries the technology is simple, whether it is steel making or basic manufacturing, fast moving consumer goods etc.
Those are settled technology. The area that is advancing at a fast pace is financial technology, communications, artificial intelligence, crypto, digital currency, digital transitions as a whole. “Therefore, you do have to be on your toes.
The good thing is that when a transaction comes, it has to be discernible, understandable to the end investor, it has to be understandable to the issuer, it has to be understandable to the regulator or it won’t get the approval it needs, so that is one comfort I see about the financial market.”
Edun told the SEC board to be willing to accept the challenge of regulating in these new areas particularly crypto as they are fast moving complex area, adding that they also have to watch out for regulatory arbitrage where a company with a portfolio of huge sophisticated transactions now comes and takes the lowest level of registration that they can just so they can say they are licensed and regulated.