Company secretaries are playing an important role in all segments of industry, particularly in banking and financial services, according to RK Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Capital market: The growth engine’, organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), in Mangalore on Wednesday, he said the government is finding it difficult to give more capital to banks because of the fiscal deficit.

Banks have been asked to raise capital from the market and there is greater thrust on disinvestment. In such a situation, the company secretaries are playing important role in the areas of banking and financial services, he said.

Historically, a company secretary’s core competence has been in compliance and corporate governance. “They are now popularly known as governance professionals in capital markets, and more frequently called upon to guide the corporate board on various strategic, governance and compliance issues related to the capital markets,” Dubey said.

Dubey said the pursuit of the reform process requires a renewed focus on capital market reforms and a revisiting of the regulatory mechanism for the entire financial sector.

Economic revival

Stating that the capital market needs to be vibrant and dynamic, Dubey said there has been a phase of lull in capital market in the last one-two years. However, the markets were very high in the last one or two months.

He said that various external and domestic factors such as Iraq crisis and its impact on India’s oil basket, the failure of monsoon and the inflation are cause for concern.

Sugata Sinha, Chief Executive of ICSI, said the new government has initiated many activities that will boost the economy step by step. Stating that the country has huge resources, he suggested the capital market to tap those resources for growth.

R Sridharan, President of ICSI, and MS Sahoo, Secretary, spoke on the occasion.

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