SEC wants businesses to see the stock market as a growth tool, not an end goal.
The Philippine stock market is facing a problem that goes beyond the number of companies listed on it. There simply aren’t enough new businesses coming in.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Francis Lim wants financial executives to help change that, urging them to convince growing businesses, particularly family-owned enterprises, to consider the capital market as a source of funding and a way to build companies that can endure across generations.
The numbers show why Lim is making the pitch. As of end-August, the Philippine Stock Exchange had 279 listed companies, fewer than neighboring markets such as Vietnam with 405, Singapore with 604, Thailand with 867 and Indonesia with 962, according to Lim. The Philippines has also seen more companies leave the market than enter it since 2023.
Lim said the country had yet to record an initial public offering (IPO) in 2026 as of September, while other ASEAN markets had recorded between three and 43 new listings during the same period. For him, getting more companies into the market is essential to expanding it.
“The deeper problem is not simply that companies are leaving. It is that too few new companies are coming in,” Lim said in a speech before the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines.
That puts the SEC’s latest reforms in context. The regulator is streamlining securities registration, expanding shelf registration and reducing fees and charges to make the capital market easier for companies to access. It is also working with the PSE and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to reduce regulatory and tax friction, while strengthening rules on public ownership, corporate governance, margin financing and market-making.
Still, getting a company to list is only part of what Lim wants to accomplish. He argued that the market has to give companies reasons to remain public and grow after they enter. A larger number of listed companies, by itself, would not necessarily create a deeper or more useful market if businesses continue to find reasons to leave.
For family-owned enterprises, Lim is also pitching the stock market as a way to institutionalize businesses for future generations. Public capital can give growing companies another funding source while potentially providing a structure that extends beyond the original owners.
The potential pool is large. Lim cited about 8,000 large corporations, 42,000 medium-sized companies, 100,000 small corporations and more than 200,000 microenterprises in the Philippines. Only a fraction would be suitable for the public market, but even a modest flow of qualified companies could significantly expand the PSE’s current base of 279 listed firms.
That is ultimately what the SEC is trying to change: the idea that the stock market is somewhere a company goes only after it has already made it. Lim wants financial executives to start treating it as a funding option that businesses can grow into, while making sure the market remains useful once they get there.
