The Securities Depository Center of Jordan (SDC) is a public utility institution established in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan by virtue of the Securities Law, as one of the three Capital Market Institutions. The SDC commenced operations in May 1999, assuming the responsibilities entrusted to it by the law, being the Registrar and Depository as well as the Clearing and Settlement entity in Jordan for the equities traded on the exchange.
The SDC oversees the main following core operations:
• The Registration, Depositing and Safekeeping of securities, as the SDC holds the share books of the issuers via book entry in dematerialized form, and since Jan. 2005 the records of the SDC constituted the legal evidence of the ownership. The SDC also executes corporate actions related to capitals of public shareholding companies such as decreases and increases of capital, mergers, acquisitions, stock split and share distributions, in addition to effecting attachments and ownership restrictions to the registers duly.
• The Clearing and Settlement, as the SDC handles the clearing and settlement for the traded securities on the exchange through the delivery versus payment method. The SDC follows the Bank of International Settlement’s model 2 for settlement, where it affects gross settlement of securities transfers followed by net settlement of funds transfers. The settlement cycle adopted in the Jordanian capital market is T+2.
• The SDC also handles the identifications of investors on the SDC database either directly or through its members of brokers and custodians, by issuing a unique number for each investor and allows for account opening in accordance with the structure adopted for this purpose.
In performing its tasks and operations, the SDC relies on its electronic system, SCORPIO® (Securities Central Operation Registry Processing & Information Online), an SDC-designed system that allows it to undertake technical, strategic, and administrative initiatives to build and strengthen its infrastructure, implement and achieve its tasks and responsibilities.
The SDC has been recognized by the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Jordan Securities Commission (JSC) as the sole numbering agency in Jordan for the assignment of codes adopted by ANNA, regarding financial instruments including International Security Identification Numbers (ISIN), Classification of Financial Instruments (CFI), and Financial Instrument Short Name (FISN). All securities registered at the SDC are numbered according to each code numbering scheme.
To enhance transparency, the SDC publishes all the information that matters to investors through its website (www.sdc.com.jo) including electronic services, names of the board members and representatives, ownership and trading of the public shareholding companies’ board of directors members, shareholders who own significant percentages of the shares in companies, trading of members of the boards of directors of those companies and representatives of legal members, financial ratios, statistical data and corporate actions.
Recent SDC developments include the following:
• The SDC launches its new website including many new features and the most prominent one is to create a special area on the website dedicated to foreign investors which will specifically include the relevant “International Standards” and all related documents that would reflect the SDC’s compliance to such standards and requirements within a special “Due Diligence Package”. It completed CPMI-IOSCO PFMIs self-assessment and publishes this report on its website.
• Developing and launching the advanced tier of investors related services such as the e-portfolio, SMS services, to enable investors to follow their portfolios and transactions executed to it easily.
• The SDC redesigns and reengineers the investor service hall with the aim of unifying the reference for providing services to investors in one place.
• The SDC strengthened institutional partnership and cooperation with the National Center for Cybersecurity to protect all SDC’s digital assets from cyber-attacks.
• Raising the level of compliance with international standards in relation to risk management. Therefore, the SDC takes many measures mainly introducing a new unit in its organizational structure that is dedicated to risk management.
• Developing and updating the SDC’s electronic system (SCOPPIO) by adding new features.
Regarding its future upcoming plans, the SDC will:
• Develop and introduce DvP Settlement for block trades.
• Commence distribution of dividends on behalf of issuers.
• Continue to work to achieve the projects within its strategic plan, which includes EBRD recommendations related to the SDC assignments.
• Update the investor services.
• Develop the infrastructure for SDC’s electronic systems and networks and update the main services and storage units.