Stock Exchange Circular on e-reporting Revoked

The Stock Exchange (the “JSX”) has revoked the recent implementation of the e-reporting initiative for reasons not entirely related to the success or failure of the system but rather the manner in which the associated provider of the e-reporting service was appointed. The primary concern is that the provider was appointed without resorting to a tender for the project and as such is a breach of the law despite the fact that the system has generally been accredited with improving the corporate governance and transparency of issuers. Investment is likely to return when investors are confident in the level of good corporate governance and transparency unfortunately the revocation of this circular means that all the initial gains in compliance will be lost as issuers have to return to more archaic forms of manual reporting.