ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Chairman Muhammad Ali said a strong regulatory environment is a must for the development of a modern corporate sector.

The SECP chairman was addressing the participants of a workshop “Economic Reporting on Financial Development Index,” here on Thursday organised by the SECP and an NGO Mishal.

Ali said that in Pakistan banking sector and National Savings have 90 per cent of total assets of the financial sector.

“Often times the entrepreneurs are not entertained by our banking centric financial system and it is not possible to raise money from other sources,” he added.

He said that respective government have not allowed promotion of small and medium sized companies and risky ventures which resulted in ‘accumulation of assets’ with banks and national savings.

“In a bid to enhance access to finance and develop a debt capital market, the SECP has introduced various new concepts like SME exchanges, pension’s schemes, micro-insurance for crops and livestock and commodity trading facility to mutual funds, where the small investors would utilised their savings,” he said.

Ali however stressed for need to create awareness among the masses and investors education regarding capital market.

“During the last one decade, return on gold has been 20 per cent and it has been 30 per cent for investments made in stock market. The other areas where the  Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has been focusing are access to capital, widening of product portfolio in stock exchanges, good governance and reforms and improving the standards of human resources of capital market,” he said.

The meeting was informed that the recent the Global Competitiveness Report (2012-13) issued by the World Economic Forum has appreciated the performance of the SECP as it has been ranked 55th in 2012-13, as compared to 70th in 2011-12.

Meanwhile, Mishal CEO Amir Jahangir briefed the participants about the procedures adopted by the World Economic Forum in the development of Financial Development Index.

Amir said that the Index assembles a vast amount of data to create an assessment of the different aspects of complex financial systems, including the institutional environment, the business environment, financial stability, banks, capital markets, and overall capital availability and access.