The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) wants the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reconsider its decision to impose a P1-million fine on the PSE and its nominations and elections committee (Nomelec).

The request, posted on the exchange’s web site on Thursday, was in reaction to an SEC order last month to fine the PSE on allegations that its Nomelec did not follow its own rules in evaluating candidates running for a seat on the PSE board during the run-up to the bourse’s elections held on May 14.

The SEC, for its part, is withholding further action until it receives added inputs from the bourse and its own market regulation division (MRD), a spokesman said on Thursday.  

“We are still waiting for additional inputs from both the PSE and MRD. But this will be taken up next week at the earliest,” SEC commission secretary Gerard Lukban said.

The SEC earlier announced it was penalizing the PSE-Nomelec for prematurely issuing certifications to certain
candidates nominated by PSE shareholders San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., among others, seeking a seat on the PSE board.

The SEC also said PSE-Nomelec “ignored” various violations by firms, also including SMC and PLDT alongside stock brokerage firms, of both the Securities Regulation Code and PSE Amended Market Regulation Rules.

The PSE-Nomelec last month disputed the findings of the SEC to little avail as the latter had ruled that PSE-Nomelec had violated its own rules.

The SEC noted that it had issued a previous warning to the PSE-Nomelec to be “more circumspect in the performance of its duties in future elections” after the commission noted “lapses” in the evaluation of candidates in the 2009 elections of the bourse.

The SEC, on May 19, finally resolved to impose the P1-million penalty on the PSE and its Nomelec for “not complying with its own rules in the evaluation of candidates for the election of directors of the exchange.”  The PSE was also ordered to pay the said fine within five days of receipt of the order.