SEC grappling with backlog of 5,000 applications

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials on Monday bared it would take them three to four months to resolve the more than 5,000 new applications backlog hounding the agency.

At the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies inquiry, SEC’s Company Registration and Monitoring Department Director Ferdinand Sales said their timeline to erase the agency’s 5,378 backlog would be from three to four months from today.

This outlook, according to their presentation, was based on their current level of staff production, assuming that average incoming applications were at 296 a day with “no unforeseen circumstances” that may cause interruptions.

SEC Chair Teresita Herbosa, meanwhile vowed to take several actions to solve the issue.

These moves, among others, were the removal of redundant steps in the registration, continuous sweep of glitches in their system, addition of other payment options for registration, and allowing overtime, flexible-time and work-from-home of staff.

Senator Nancy Binay has filed a resolution to look into the reported delays in the release of certificate of registration by the SEC despite its launch of an online registration for early registration of corporations in the country on Nov. 21, 2017. /cbb