Over the years I have often been a fierce critic of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), its administration and its method of operation. But I have to say that the concept underlying Strate (the acronym from share transactions totally electronic) and the way it is being introduced deserves unflinching support. Properly developed, Strate will ensure that the JSE keeps up with the changes being adopted by all the leading bourses.
Strate is designed to do away entirely with share certificates – no more paper-driven certificates of ownership. Instead, all shares will be transferred to an electronic depository in a process labelled “dematerialisation”, a truly horrible word.
Thereafter, the recording of sales and purchases of stock and ownership will be effected electronically.
Considering the number of listed companies and the huge quantum of scrip involved, this will be a monumental undertaking. In the process, however, it may also expose serious shortcomings which have long been permitted to go largely unremarked.
In the past, many investors have chosen to lodge their scrip with nominee companies, frequently those owned and operated by the major banks.
The fee for this safe custody service has long provided a good source of revenue to the operators.
Now, however, I hear that the banks (notably the big four) are deliberately frustrating the Strate process.
They are anxious, it is being said, after having agreed to many of the detailed technical intricacies which this project demands, to delay the start of the phased implementation until March next year.
And they have also asked that United States management consultant McKinsey should be appointed to examine the ramifications of what is delicately called “tainted” scrip – at a cost, apparently, of something like $100 000 a month.
Why would this be? Efforts to make contact with representatives of the banks were fruitless. And the Strate project director, Monica Singer, who used to chat away enthusiastically, now simply says flatly that she can’t talk to the press -another way of saying she’s been nobbled.
So I am left having to guess, intelligently I hope.
Being prissy and polite gets no one anywhere in this matter: “tainted” scrip means scrip that has been stolen, period.
And it is a well-kept secret that scrip has been disappearing from the vaults of nominee companies for years. The scrip finds its way into the hands of syndicates who sell it and make off with the loot.
And someone is left clearing up the aftermath. Why else would really tough- looking investigators be employed almost constantly?
The best example I can think of is that given recently in Business Day, which revealed that investigations at the Pretoria branch of Standard Equities led to 40 arrests involving stolen scrip valued at R200-million. “The banks fear,” said the paper, “this could be just the tip of the iceberg.” An understatement if ever there was one.
There are ways of dealing with this problem. But I suspect the banks have become increasingly nervous of the extent of the mess which is only now beginning to unravel.
This country has a legacy of shoddy administration and inept management which isn’t confined to the civil service.
The implementation of Strate goes hand-in- hand with the requirement that central securities depository participants – who will effectively replace transfer secretaries over time – must replace stock which they bring to the market and which turns out to be stolen.
The banks are saying – now, after all this time – that they can’t be held accountable for this.
Part of their argument sounds reasonable enough, but it blankets what I suspect is the real underlying cause – their understandable fear that the dematerialisation process will expose their own shortcomings which have been allowed to accumulate over many years.
What this also does, of course, is demonstrate – yet again – the extraordinary power which this country’s princi- pal clearing banks are able to bring to bear on a variety of situations.
I don’t know what action the JSE can mount in response to obtuse behaviour of this kind, but I sincerely hope JSE executive president Russell Loubser will dig deep and stand firm.
The only thing to puncture the great silence which has descended on the long- running story of the now infamous Reserve Bank lifeboat accommodation of about R1,5- billion to Absa/Bankorp has been the arrival of a well-researched book. It’s entitled Dangerous Deceits and is written by Frank Welsh, who produced a robust and refreshing History of South Africa last year.
I have been struck by the almost total lack of publicity given to it. Now why would that be, I wonder?
Well, whatever. For those interested – and even for those who aren’t – Dangerous Deceits is riveting and racy. It is also pretty scary. Given that it is non-fiction and the country is South Africa, it demands attention. For all that, Welsh occasionally reveals he was a writer in a hurry. Published by Harper Collins, it is available in softback.