An investment analyst, Nornah Awoh, has urged stricter compliance by operators and fair enforcement by regulators after N291.29 million sanctions on five licence holders.

The penalties were imposed by NGX Regulation Ltd over market conduct breaches, including wash trades and self-matching transactions.

The sanctioned firms were CSL Stockbrokers Ltd., Cowry Securities Ltd., Meristem Stockbrokers Ltd., SMADAC Securities Ltd., and Associated Asset Managers Ltd.

Speaking in Lagos on Sunday, Mr Awoh advised operators to strengthen internal controls and compliance systems to reduce deliberate and inadvertent breaches.

He stressed regulators must apply sanctions fairly, noting not all infractions arise from deliberate misconduct.

Mr Awoh said expecting a capital market without infractions was unrealistic, as errors are inevitable in any human-driven system.

“We cannot have a market without infractions; that would be utopian. Just like in everyday life, not all mistakes are deliberate.

“For non-deliberate infractions, brokers must be more diligent. For deliberate ones, appeals to conscience are vital, because the market is bigger than any individual,” he said.

Mr Awoh underscored the need to distinguish intentional violations from inadvertent errors when imposing sanctions to strengthen confidence in regulation.

“Participants should not behave as though the market exists for them alone. Protecting market integrity is a shared responsibility,” he said.

(NAN)