SEC’s vision: A more robust capital market
By: Atty. Euney Marie Mata-Perez on August 14,2025
SHAREPHIL (Shareholders Association of the Philippines Inc.) on Aug. 8 hosted another well-attended forum, with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman and SharePHIL past president Francis Edralin Lim as guest speaker.
The forum was titled, “Firm, Fair and Future-Focused: The SEC’s Vision for a Transformed Capital Market.”
It was refreshing to hear Lim speak about plans to lead SEC in fostering an environment where “businesses can grow, investors can commit long-term capital and markets can serve the real economy.”
He recalled that, after having worked at the intersection of law, policy and the capital markets, he learned one important lesson: Confidence in our markets depends not just on the quality of our legal framework, but on the actual experience of those who navigate them.
He said it is not just about what the law and the rules say, it is also about how accessible, predictable and fair the system feels to those starting and building businesses, managing capital or protecting investor interests.
He wants the SEC to meet these challenges, despite the various issues at hand, which include accelerating technological disruption, increasing competition from neighboring markets, rising investor expectations, evolving financial crime risks and persistent calls for efficiency and transparency.
Doing business easy
The SEC, Lim said, will make doing business easy through the following:
(a) Imposing upon SEC personnel strict processing timelines.
(b) Conducting internal audits to fix bottlenecks and instill discipline across the institution.
(c) Making compliance less costly — reducing fees by 50 percent on various documents, giving discounts to companies (especially for smaller businesses) that want to tap capital markets for fundraising and proposing revisions to allow more small firms to file unaudited financial statements under SEC Memorandum Circular 6, Series of 2025.
(d) Increasing the coverage of our OneSEC (our one-day registration system) from 30 to 83 categories of companies with pre-encoded documents and automated identity verification via eSECURE — no notarization, no wet signatures, no human intermediaries.
(e) Deploying a blockchain-backed validation system that will authenticate SEC documents through cryptographic signatures — a major step forward in protecting against forgery and building digital trust.
The second major priority is capital market development. Acknowledging that we have lagged behind our Asean neighbors, Lim said that SEC is working to:
(a) Encourage more listings, including by micro, small and medium enterprises, legislative franchise holders, and eligible government-owned and -controlled corporations.
(b) Finalize a revised shelf registration framework.
(c) Liberalize rules on exempt transactions.
(d) Promote reforms in real estate investment trusts, short selling and repossession markets.
The goal is simple but urgent: Deepen and democratize participation in the capital markets, so that funding is not just available to the few — but accessible to all enterprises with sound governance and vision.
The third priority is investing in people. SEC intends to develop its employees’ fullest potential — because they are the future of the agency and of the capital markets we are all trying to build.
In the end, he emphasized, capital markets thrive on trust. And trust, once lost, is hard to regain. Thus, SEC will not tolerate fraud, manipulation or misconduct in any form.
Lim concluded by recognizing the roles of the wider business community and government. He also exhorted the private sector to continue engaging and working with, as well as supporting, the SEC.
SharePHIL members are proud and happy that their past president, one of the founders of the organization, is now at the helm of the country’s SEC, walking his talk, with the hope of realizing his vision of a more robust capital market in the near future.
SharePHIL is a nonstock, nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by a group of professionals and investors to address the need for a systematic effort to promote and protect the rights of shareholders. The establishment of an investor organization can serve as a catalyst to developing a dynamic and sustainable capital market.
It advocates for investor education and making the public understand the rights accorded to them by their investment in publicly listed corporations and how their investment can help secure their financial future while fueling economic activity and development.
Euney Marie J. Mata-Perez is a CPA-Lawyer and the Managing Partner of Mata-Perez, Tamayo & Francisco (MTF Counsel). She is a corporate, M&A and tax lawyer and has been ranked as one of the top 100 lawyers of the Philippines by Asia Business Law Journal and is the Chair of the Tax Committee of the Management Association of the Philippines. This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional advice where the facts and circumstances warrant. If you have any question or comment regarding this article, you may email the author at info@mtfcounsel.com or visit MTF website at www.mtfcounsel.com.