The indefatigable Francis Lim

Around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Francis Lim, the incoming chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, called his soon-to-be predecessor, outgoing chairman Emil Aquino, to congratulate him for all that he had accomplished at the SEC, the country’s corporate regulator.

Aquino was presiding over the regular SEC en banc meeting that afternoon in the SEC conference room when he received the call. He put Lim on speakerphone.

“Pare, ang dami mong nagawa!” Lim told Aquino.

This was soon after Malacañang had announced, after much speculation, that Lim, indeed, will be the new SEC chair.

As he congratulated Aquino, Lim, who was out of the country when the announcement was made, was also receiving his share of congratulatory messages on his phone.

For the industry, Lim’s appointment was not much of a surprise. In the last few days, the business grapevine was already talking about Lim being the dark horse among a crop of top-notch lawyers considered for the position.

Lim himself is quite a legal luminary. He is a former president of the Philippine Stock Exchange and the Shareholders Association of the Philippines, positions he held actively and passionately.

He is quite energetic, indeed, especially when it comes to upholding shareholders’ interest, at least that was how I knew him when I was covering him during my days as a capital markets reporter some years back.

It would be quite interesting to see how Lim handles the so-called old-boys clubs in the stock market industry, or even in the accounting sector. As they say, IYKYK – if you know, you know.

SEC insiders want the next SEC chairperson to continue some of the reforms that Aquino has put in place.

Aquino, they said, has set himself apart from his predecessors in more ways than one. For starters, he is the first CPA-lawyer to lead the country’s corporate and securities regulator. He is also one of the few homegrown talents to successfully climb the ladder.

“His being a CPA-lawyer, it appears, shaped the Commission’s greater focus on the role of financial accountants and auditors in ensuring the integrity of the Philippine capital markets. In fact, his term saw the expansion and creation of auditing and inspection programs within the Commission,” according to one insider.

As a homegrown talent, Aquino was aware of the workplace issues, bottlenecks, politics and culture, which influenced the SEC’s priority areas.

“For one, he pushed for the SEC’s aggressive digital transformation while managing the internal resistance which, according to him, partly led to the failure of his predecessor’s earlier attempt at digitalization,” the source also said.

Aquino also expanded the SEC workforce, more than doubling it mostly in the latter part of his term, and pushed for more benefits for employees.

Capital markets

On the other hand, some observers felt that capital market development did not receive as much attention, at least in Aquino’s first few years in office.

His term saw REITs, crowdfunding, sustainable finance and innovative securities trading platforms take off. He also pushed for the creation of an office that would focus on marketing and making accessible the capital markets to smaller enterprises. Yet, those were not enough to bring as many issuers and investors alike to the market.

Over all, there’s no doubt that Aquino brought the SEC, as well as the corporate sector, to new heights.

But Lim will have to fill in the gaps to ensure a stronger foundation upon which the SEC can rise to the next level.

Being an outsider, Lim may prove to be an excellent choice because he is coming in with no biases.

As a veteran SEC executive said, such a perspective would allow the SEC to recalibrate and refine – without undoing or reinventing – the reforms that have been implemented and have proved helpful in improving the ease of doing business in the Philippines.

Lim’s actual experience in the corporate sector and capital markets will be crucial. He must uphold the investor protection efforts of the SEC without restricting the growth of the capital markets.

He must also win the trust, respect and support of SEC employees, although Lim strikes me as a people person, which means he might easily charm his way into the SEC bureaucracy.

Last but not least, like those who came before him, Lim must be open and receptive to more changes in the corporate and securities regulatory landscapes.

He must have the wisdom, agility and energy to embrace new changes that could help the capital markets, especially in this dizzying age of AI.

The good news is that, as I said, Lim is one active and indefatigable leader.

I hope though that he will have enough energy to go after all the bad eggs in the Philippine corporate sector, who are, surprisingly, even worse than the crocodiles in government.

It’s about time we bring more of these people to justice – from investment scammers to stock market manipulators, especially the big boys who engage in insider trading.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.