After presenting a report by Tahira Aurangzeb on the State Life Insurance Corporation (Re-organization and Conversion Bill, 2016, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir placed it in the House for passage. Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan presented The Credit Bureaus (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the House for passage. The House approved the Bills without any opposition.
The objectives of the State Life Insurance Corporation (Re-organization and Conversion) Bill, 2016 are as: (i) to provide for re-organization and conversion of State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC hereinafter) into a public limited company, (ii) to provide for a legal basis for SLIC other than through the Life Insurance Nationalisation Order, that will accurately define its enhanced objectives and role in the current environment, (iii) to encourage and promote growth in insurance sector in Pakistan, (iv) to provide for SLIC's business activities to be subject to uniform regulatory oversight and supervision, (v) to 'streamline SLIC governance structure to bring it in line with existing regulation and international best practices.
The purpose of Credit Bureaus (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to amendments in the Credit Bureaus Act, 2015, is to ensure that the existing legislation is in conformity with the provisions of the BCO, 1962, and international best practices. The amendments in the Act are proposed for the following reasons:
"a) The existing requirement of credit information report issued by a credit bureau to be verified by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), has been omitted, as the credit information report shall in most of the cases be accessed electronically by financial institutions that have data sharing arrangements with the credit bureau. Technically, it would not be possible for SBP to verify reports being accessed by institutions across the country. In addition to this, SBP collects data under Section (25A) of Banking Companies Ordinance (BCO), 1962 for Electronic Credit Information Bureau (ECIB) database which is confidential. If this data is used for verification of the credit reports, there would be indirect disclosure of confidential data, which is unlawful under the aforesaid Section of the BCO, 1962. The member financial institutions, who report/upload data on ECIB, are responsible for accuracy of the data. Same practice would be followed in case of private credit bureaus, who would be subject to internal, external and SBP Audit/Inspection, to ensure compliance of rules and regulations. This is also consistent with the international best practices."
According to objectives of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2016, "to extensive changes in the jurisdiction and changing corporate structure of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). The SECP feels the there is a need to amend the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Act, 1997 (XLII of 1997) to further enhance its functions and to enable it to act as integrated regulator."