SEC bags ASIA CEO Award For Service Excellence

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been recognized by the Asia CEO Awards for providing high service level standards to its stakeholders, ensuring the growth of the Commission while also contributing to the overall development of the Philippine business sector.

The Commission was named Airspeed Service Excellence Company of the Year in the 13^th installment of the Asia CEO Awards held at the Manila Marriott Hotel on October 11.

Winners of the award were chosen based on service level improvements and advancements made by the organization to enable business expansion; the financial impact of such improvements; pioneering achievements; customer satisfactions; as well as other recognitions garnered by the initiative.

“The SEC has always been at the forefront of devising new programs that would make transacting with the Commission easy and hassle-free. These programs serve to further the growth of our corporate sector as we move to a digital-first world, while ensuring that our stakeholders can adapt to such changes,” SEC Chairperson Emilio B. Aquino said.

“We thank the Asia CEO Awards for the recognition of our humble efforts, and likewise commit to upholding the standards of excellence we have shown the public thus far.”

Over the past two years, the SEC has rolled out several programs under its digital transformation program to further improve the ease of doing business in the country and spur the growth of domestic enterprises. Among these is the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC), which allowed for an easier and faster company registration process.

The automation of the registration process helped grow the number of newly registered domestic corporations and partnerships by 50.50% and 33.5%, respectively, in 2021. Since its launch in April 2021, the system has so far processed 95,163 applications for company registration.

The Commission has also launched Electronic Filing and Submission System (eFAST), which allows companies to digitally submit their audited financial statement (AFS), general information sheet (GIS), and other reportorial requirements. In total, eFAST has already received 439,165 reports as of September 16, 2022.

Moreover, the Commission came out with the Electronic System for Payments to SEC (eSPAYSEC) to facilitate the online payment of registration fees, charges, penalties and other transaction fees with the SEC using debit and credit cards, digital wallets, and other cashless payment options.

Since its launch, eSPAYSEC has recorded a total of 37,639 online payment transactions and collected P256.82 million in fees and penalties, averaging at P15.2 million per month from March 2021 to August 2022.

Moving forward, the Commission has more digitalization programs set to be launched, including an online search portal, a registry system for the accreditation of external auditors and auditing firms, a system for integrated compliance monitoring, evaluation and enforcement, a system for stress testing for capital market intermediaries, and a complaints management system.

To support its digital transformation initiatives and protect its systems from cyberattacks and data leaks, the Commission has created the Cybersecurity and Shared Services Division. It also established the Cyber and Forensics Division, which shall focus on prevention and detection of securities fraud committed through the use of the internet, social media and access devices.