charles s r chuka : review of the financial sector in malawi address by mr charles s r chuka, governor of the reserve bank of malawi, at the guest of honour at the inauguration of cdh house, blantyre, 24 june 2014. * * * protocol mr franklin kennedy, chairman of the board of directors of cdh investment bank ( cdhib ) and your fellow directors mr misheck esau, chief executive officer, management and staff of cdhib dr grant kabango, deputy governor, supervision mr eldin mlelemba, director of bank supervision and officials from the reserve bank of malawi distinguished invited guests, ceo ’ s of banks, private and public institutions blantyre city chief executive officer mr ted nandolo ward counsellor, counsellor noel chalamanda the officiating clergy director of ceremonies, mr benedicto malunga members of the press ladies and gentlemen i wish to begin by thanking you chairman and the board for inviting me to perform the honourable task of inaugurating the cdh house. taking tour of the building convinced me that you mean business, that you intend to grow your bank and to be a significant player in contributing to the economic growth of this country. indeed, the transformation from a discount house which operated for fourteen years to a bank in april 2012 is a remarkable achievement. i recall in 1998, when we licensed continental discount house, there had not been such a financial institution before. however, in view of the need that the central bank saw in the market, we found room in the banking laws to license a discount house. the need was to encourage the trading of financial instruments such as treasury bills and others. at the time money market investors were not able to access liquidity from their investments in financial instruments before maturity. with the licensing of continental discount house then, now cdhib, a platform was created for a secondary market in financial instruments to develop. the institution, as we were shown today through the displays, not only traded government financial instruments, but also originated other financial instruments such as commercial paper, negotiable promissory notes, corporate medium term notes and bonds. it is pleasing to note the amount of work that the institution performed in the capital market. in the displays, we saw the milestones in equity issues in various forms such as bonus issues, rights issues and the listing of shares on the malawi stock exchange. it is very clear that the foundation to becoming an investment

victor mbewe : committee of sadc stock exchanges speech by mr victor mbewe, governor of the reserve bank of malawi, at the opening of the committee of sadc stock exchanges ( cosse ) 2008 first meeting, lilongwe, 31 january 2008. * * * the chairman of the committee of sadc stock exchanges ; delegates to the meeting ; distinguished ladies and gentlemen. i welcome all participants to this meeting, aware that some of you are visiting malawi, the warm heart of africa for the first time. i wish you all a pleasant stay. allow me to start by mentioning that we are privileged to host this meeting as it helps us all to take stock of how far we have recently moved towards creating a common market in southern africa. progress toward integration of capital markets on a regional basis will help spur accelerated economic integration goals in other areas. the harmonization of stock market regulations and trading practices that would accompany any regionalization of exchanges could deepen regional integration more broadly in policy areas such as foreign exchange, taxation, accounting standards, corporate governance and legal practices. i am aware that sadc exchanges have been working toward adopting a common framework for clearing and settlement. among other options under consideration are the establishment of a linked network of individual central depository systems tailored to the specific needs of member exchanges. i hope that the committee of sadc stock exchanges is also drawing up common standards for all stockbrokers operating in the sadc region. this would enable brokers based in one sadc member state to establish a presence in any other member state. regulation and surveillance of national exchanges ultimately will be carried out on a regional level. i hope that national exchanges will formalise the practice of regular reporting on your national surveillance and regulations. the exchange of information on national surveillance policies and practices will be used to devise a harmonised system of surveillance and regulation for the sadc region. the committee of sadc stock exchanges should also aim to develop the region ’ s bond as well as other securities markets, and you must continue encouraging national authorities to actively issue government securities on the region ’ s exchanges. there is broad agreement that foreign exchange control, regulatory and tax frameworks must also be harmonized before financial markets can actually link up. more specifically, this would involve harmonizing not only stock market regulations, listing requirements, and trading, clearing, and settlement procedures, but also transaction fees, accounting standards, corporate governance standards, disclosure requirements, common standards for stockbrokers, and national rules for capital