The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has formed a technical working group with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) to speed up the drafting of new policies that will help in developing the capital market, such as the expansion of the minimum public ownership rule for listed companies.

In an interview, SEC Chairman Francis E. Lim stated that establishing a technical working group will save time, as the group's recommendations will be the final version immediately.

This is compared to the usual back-and-forth between the SEC and PSE, with PSE initially drafting proposed rules and submitting them to the SEC, and the SEC returning them to the bourse for fine-tuning. The PSE then resubmits them to the regulator for approval.

Lim said they are now considering rules providing different tiers of minimum public float for companies depending on the size of their market capitalization, with the consideration that there will still be enough liquidity in the market.

“We are fixing the tiers so we do not have to keep on dealing with requests for exemptive relief (from companies going public but finding the current 20 percent public float requirement too high),” said Lim.

He noted that they are looking at a range of as low as 10 percent to 12 percent for companies with large market capitalization and up to 33 percent for much smaller companies, since a “one-size-fits-all” minimum public ownership policy is not the right way to encourage more firms to get listed.

Lim said the technical working group will submit the final draft to the SEC, and the new policy may be approved and ready for implementation by the end of this year or in the first quarter, “so we can start fresh next year.”

The need to review the 20 percent minimum public ownership rule was raised by GCash owner Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc. (Mynt) which has been considering an initial public offering but wants regulators to allow it to sell a stake closer to 10 percent since its market capitalization is too large and investors may not be able to absorb a 20 percent offering.

The PSE had earlier proposed to allow a lower public float for IPOs worth ₱5 billion or higher. It proposed that IPO firms can offer 15 percent with a commitment that they will do a follow-on offering or a private placement in the next two or three years to comply with the 20 percent requirement.