PSE to launch ‘hanap dividendo’

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) will launch "hanap-dividendo", a program that aims to make it easier for stockmarket investors to claim dividends issue by listed corporations.

Under the program, the PSE will put a list of all unclaimed dividends from all brokers in its website. As of November 2002, the total amount lodged in unclaimed dividends amounted to about P12.9 million.

The Exchange has asked all brokers to submit all the names of clients with unclaimed dividends.

The program will serve as the Exchange’s Valentine’s gift to the investing public, said PSE Chairman Vivian Yuchengco.

Those who may have had a problem in claiming dividends are those who had changed their address.

The project came about during deliberations of the PSE Governance Committee when the unclaimed dividends became an audit exception for one of the brokers.

Existing rules of the PSE’s Compliance and Surveillance Group penalize brokers who do not distribute dividends to clients in a timely manner. However, despite exerting all efforts in locating clients, some brokers simply cannot locate certain customers.

The reason given by brokers is that dividends are undeliverable because the customer cannot be found in the address given in their information sheet.

The committee proposed to collect the list of unclaimed dividends from all brokers and post it in the PSE website.

A partial list of the names of recipients showed that unclaimed cash dividends range from a few centavos to as high as P19,000.

The Exchange expects to complete the list and have it posted in its website before Valentine’s Day . Investors who do not have computers may also call the PSE to verify if their names appear on the list. The PSE may be reached at 636-0122.