IN the previous column, we talked about the dearth of securities issues as an obstacle to capital market development.
Accordingly, the “Capital Market Development Act” has been proposed in Congress , has been deliberated upon, hearings conducted and approved in May 2021 and sent to the Senate on June 2, 2021, where it was caught up in the change of administration. It is now being deliberated upon by the Senate. It is instructive to quote a portion of its Declaration of Policy:
The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. reports its number of investor accounts as 1,620,017 of which 98.1 percent are retail accounts and 1.9 percent are institutional accounts. Of the total, 72 percent are online accounts. Having an average income of P500,000 a year for about 73 percent of online retail accounts. About 86 percent are salaried or self-employed.
Then we can join SharePhil in its advocacy to “Support the emerging digital-savvy mass affluent class in the Philippines by 2030,” targeting the following: doubling the gross domestic product per capita to $6,500; increasing the number of established and emerging affluent families by 1.8-times to 48 million; and, growing the affluent class population by 1.3x to 34 million. BY this we mean a consolidated collective effort by all stakeholders.