Capital market bill soon

Capital market bill soon

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad is scheduled to submit a draft of the long-awaited law on capital markets to the House of Representatives (DPR) next Wednesday.

The draft of the capital market law is one of two bills which will be proposed by the minister next week. The other bill is on customs and excise.

The draft of the capital market law, which will replace the outdated Capital Market Law of 1952, is expected to provide a stronger base to ensure fair trading in the country's growing capital market.

Bacelius Ruru, the chairman of the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam), said recently that Bapepam is expected to be endowed with greater judicial powers by the new law.

The draft of the capital market law will have 16 chapters and 123 articles.

The present law is not only too brief but also too weak to cover the rapid developments in capital market activities, Ruru said.

Another important aspect in the draft law is the inclusion of a legal base for the introduction of a book-entry settlement system, Ruru said.

Investors, under the book-entry trading system, or scripless trading as it is more popularly called, would no longer need to keep their share certificates as their stock holdings would automatically be booked on their electronic stock accounts, Ruru said. (hen)