More forceful reforms in line at SEC – Lim

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January 20, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairperson Francis Lim is assuring investors of a steady business environment in the Philippines alongside a more forceful enforcement action to restore their confidence.

Speaking to business leaders, representatives from chambers of commerce, industry associations and financial sector members at the Big Bold Reforms: The Philippines 2026 event last Friday, Lim said the Philippines remains a stable place to do business and the SEC is working every day to keep it that way.

“We are strengthening the fundamentals that businesses look for: clear rules, reliable processes and a fair playing field – so they can operate with greater speed, certainty and confidence,” he said.

Lim said while external and internal issues would arise in any economy, how firmly institutions respond by enforcing standards and making accountability real is what sustains confidence.

“That is the logic behind our reforms,” the SEC chair said.

“When business moves, the SEC must not be the hurdle. When markets demand trust, the SEC must not look away. That is the balance we are building—ease that enables and integrity that protects,” he said.

In less than a year since Lim was appointed as chairperson of the SEC, the commission has strengthened service standards through a “deemed approved” policy.

“Subject to limited exceptions, when an application is complete, it should be approved within three working days for simple matters, seven for complex and 20 for highly technical filings. And we enforce the principle of deemed approved when legal requirements are met – subject to post-approval audit,” Lim said.

The SEC has also removed friction by strengthening its digital registration system to enable end-to-end online incorporation of companies.

Its coverage has expanded from 33 to 81 company types, including foreign-owned.

“What used to take 7.4 days or even weeks can now be approved in under two hours for complete applications. And adoption is rising – our online registrations grew from 4,591 in the first half of 2025 to almost 6,747 in the second half, almost a 47 percent increase,” Lim said.

Further, the SEC has expanded its online amendment portal from four simple processing items to 28, cutting the turnaround time for amendments that fall within these items, which previously took weeks or even months.

However, Lim said that speed must never come at the expense of market integrity.

“We assure the investing public that we will take enforcement action more forcefully, as we have recently done, where it is essential to restore investor confidence,” the SEC chair said.

“For us, integrity is the invisible currency of our markets, and once trust is eroded, everyone pays the price including our publicly listed companies that they don’t get their true valuation from our stock market,” he said.

Lim said the SEC has also acted on a basic principle that cost should not be a barrier to doing business.

“Accordingly, we froze increases in fees; instead, we reduced them,” he said.

Lim said that cutting its fees for official documents by 50 percent has resulted in the savings of over P110 million for the public as of 2025.

By extending the same policy logic to smaller enterprises, he said more than 13,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have saved over P34 million from the 20 percent discount given for corporate registration.

In addition, Lim said over 500 MSMEs have saved more than P211 million from reduced rates for increases in capital stock, while for non-MSMEs, over P10 million were saved resulting from the 30 percent discount of fees for registration statement applications.

For public offerings, Lim said the SEC is applying a 45-day strict review period for registration statements, with turnaround time now averaging around 35 to 40 days.

The commission has also advanced REIT reforms by expanding income-generating assets from the traditional malls and office buildings to include toll roads, railways, airports, air navigation facilities, seaports, data centers, energy infrastructure assets, parking lots, buildings, warehouses or storage facilities.

“We in the SEC need to do much more and we will continue to do it. We need and welcome your partnership in building a Philippine market where doing business is simpler, more predictable and worthy of investors’ confidence,” Lim said.