Association of Corporate Trustees holds AGM

THE Association of Corporate Trustees (ACT), the trade group and professional body of all corporate trustees in Nigeria, has held its 12th annual general meeting in Lagos.

The meeting, which held recently, covered official annual general meeting (AGM) businesses, including a review of minutes of the previous AGM, receipt of the auditor’s report and the financial statements for the last fiscal year, and the president’s report.

President, ACT, Funmi Ekundayo, while welcoming members to the meeting, updated them on the recent developments and the issues that arose during the year under review.

Ekundayo said the association has witnessed increased recognition with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the major regulatory body of the industry, through more active involvement of the association in the various activities organised by SEC that are of mutual benefits to both parties. She also spoke on the increased appreciation by other capital market operators of the role of Trustees in debt capital markets transactions generally.

Ekundayo further highlighted efforts of the association towards the capacity building of members and providing them with relevant market information and updates.

Emphasising the commitment of the association towards building capacity of its members, Efiok Ekpenyong Efiok from SEC, was invited to present a paper at the meeting.

The paper titled: “Compliance/Collective Investment Schemes”, discussed the legal form or structure of Collective Investment Schemes, the compliance functions of both trustees and fund managers; compliance processes and requirements and other factors that affect the compliance role.

Efiok also discussed how trustees can ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of compliance processes and concluded that the objective of adding value to investors’ portfolio should be the paramount interest of both trustees and fund managers.