SEC collects P119 million from online payments

MANILA, Philippines — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has collected more than P119 million worth of fees and penalties since it launched an online tool last year.

SEC chairman Emilio Aquino yesterday reported that its web-based Electronic System for Payment to SEC (eSPAYSEC) has raised P119.07 million in revenue, covering 16,898 transactions, for the payment of business registrations and other fees as of January.

He said eSPAYSEC has generated an average of P11.9 million per month since it was launched in March last year.

Further, the SEC improved the features of its Electronic System for Processing and Registration of Companies (eSPARC) that facilitates the application to become a corporation. Based on data, the SEC has processed 48,266 applications through eSPARC since it went online in April 2021.

Similarly, the OneSEC – a subsystem of eSPARC – has registered 3,288 new corporations since its inception last September. As a doing business platform, OneSEC makes sure that firms get a one-day submission and registration for their requirements to become a corporation.

The digital mechanism requires minimal effort on the part of the registrant, as most information that needs to be encoded are pre-filled.

“OneSEC is completely seamless and fully automated in the absence of human intervention on the part of the commission starting from the name verification on the proposed corporate name, until the issuance of the digital copy of the Certificate of Incorporation,” Aquino said.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, for his part, said the SEC should sustain its measures to speed up the registration of new firms to contribute in the government’s move to expand the capital markets and prevent fraudulent schemes.

“I don’t know in the past, but I don’t think this has ever happened in SEC’s history that you have achieved so much in the ease of doing business. The SEC has also contributed in a big way in improving the capital markets and in catching fraudulent transactions,” Dominguez said.

Even as the Duterte administration ends its term in June, Aquino vowed to pursue reforms that will accelerate the development of the capital markets. For one, the SEC will work with state-run Development Bank of the Philippines to gear up their cybersecurity defenses.

Aquino also committed to press for the legislative approval of the Capital Market Development Act to compel institutional investors to participate in the capital markets, as well as the Financial Consumers Protection Act to firm up the SEC’s role in going after investment scams.