OVER a week after its debut, the rate of enrollment for the online submission tool (OST) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is “not as high” as the corporate regulator wanted.
“I think we’re averaging [400] to 500 enrollees a day, currently, that’s still far from where we’re looking at,” SEC Commissioner Kelvin Lester K. Lee said in an interview with the ABS-CBN News Channel on Tuesday.
All stock corporations were required by the SEC to use the OST for submissions beginning this year. The corporate regulator said there are around 800,000 regulatees.
Nearly 200,000 of those are nonstock corporations, which were given until 2022 to sign up on the platform.
“Admittedly, that’s why we started early. By starting [on] March 15, we still have a large amount of time before other deadlines come in,” Mr. Lee said.
Report deadlines might be extended for corporations due to the difficulty posed by the pandemic.
“We are looking at possibly extending some of the deadlines for some of the reportorial requirements to give people breathing room,” Mr. Lee said. “But we do encourage people to come in and [enroll] this year as quickly as they can.”
The OST will be used to collect submissions of annual reports, including Annual Financial Statements (AFS), General Information Sheet (GIS), Sworn Statement for Foundation, General Form for Financial Statements, and Special Form for Financial Statements.
For its initial run, an Affidavit of Non-Operation may be submitted with the GIS or AFS. The OST will also accept submissions for Affidavit of Non-Holding of Annual Meeting with the GIS.
The public will be given access to reports through the Online Submission Portal, which is still in the testing phase.
“[It] makes things much easier for everyone to be able to access the data that is publicly available, and which the SEC is the national repository for,” Mr. Lee said.
SEC will be providing OST Kiosks in SEC offices and other areas until Dec. 15 for those who would need assistance with using the new platform.
“I foresee that this will change things, make things much easier for the [corporations] and for ourselves as well, actually,” Mr. Lee said. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte