SEC to interface with ICMR on identity theft, unclaimed dividends

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has disclosed plans to work with the Institute of Capital Market Registrars (ICMR) to resolve issues of identity management and rising unclaimed dividends in the capital market.

The Director-General of the SEC, Lamido Yuguda, pointed out that part of the problems of unclaimed dividends has to do with identity management, saying it is currently engaging the registrars and other stakeholders and increasing investors’ education to stem the trend.

Identity theft is a fraudulent practice of using another person’s name and personal information to obtain shares, credit, loans among others.

According to Yuguda, the committee has set up an identity management committee to harmonise various databases of investors and facilitate data accuracy in the market.

He said the committee comprises the SEC, the registrars, the stockbrokers, the issuing houses, the CSCS, and NSE, in addition to the e-dividend management committee.

Yuguda said the committee’s assignment would address the challenges of identity management and help tackle some of the issues of unclaimed dividends, direct cash settlement and multiple subscriptions.

“We have engaged with the industry to see where the issues are. We have understood the problem better.

“We are working with the institute to resolve this, also the identity management committee that we have just recently set up is looking at all these issues.”

In addition, Yuguda said operators are also having problems with the banking information that was given by investors before they can enroll into the e-dividend mandate management system and secondly we have issues.

He attributed the development to a manual system, which was adopted during the process, assuring that the commission would continue to interface with operators to resolve the issue.

Also, he said the commission is also intensifying efforts to educate the public on, and engaging the various stakeholders to be able to get a lot of the information that we require.