JSX to elect new board of directors soon

JSX to elect new board of directors soon

JAKARTA (JP): The shareholders of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) will soon elect new boards of directors and commissioners, informed sources said.

The has been called because the Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) has introduced new procedures for nominating stock exchange directors and commissioners. The present directors have served only nine months of their three year term, but the JSX commissioners will end their term next month.

One of 83 regulations issued by Bapepam on Jan. 17 (Regulation No. 04/PM/1996) stipulates that director and commissioner candidates must be nominated by a minimum of three active exchange members with a combined trading value and trading frequency of at least 4 percent of total transactions on the exchange in the last 12 months.

The majority of each group of the three exchange members must be local securities firms. Each member of the group must have a minimum of 0.2 percent of the total transaction value and frequency.

Previously, all members were allowed to submit their nominations.

The smaller securities companies have called the new procedure unfair, but there has been sign the procedures will be revised.

Bapepam, according to the sources, has instructed the exchange's management to hold a general shareholders meeting.

Former president of the Indonesian rating agency PT Pefindo, Alfred Koetin, who is also a retired Bapepam official, questioned the urgency of electing a new management.

He wonders if the present JSX management was not cooperating with Bapepam.

Koetin told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the new capital market law and Bapepam's regulations are ambiguous.

"It was Bapepam's interpretation that the JSX's management has to be elected again to implement the new ruling, which was issued after the enactment of the new capital market law," he said.

He noted that since the JSX's management was separated from Bapepam in 1992, the exchange has been run privately.

"This is funny. We said that we adopted the American style of supervising stock markets, in which stock exchanges are supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But I don't think that the SEC is as powerful as our Bapepam," Koetin said. (08)