The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved an amendment to the Philippine Stock Exchange market regulation rules to allow former independent directors to chair the bourse’s Market Integrity Board.

Under the amended rules, the MIB will still have five members with at least one member being an independent director of the PSE while two will be non-director trading participants in good standing.

However, the chair must be an incumbent or former independent director of the PSE who possesses all the qualifications of an independent director. The amendment will give the PSE more options when looking for an MIB chair candidate to appoint considering the sensitivity of the post which has recently been the subject of some controversy.

The MIB is a supervisory body that examines the functions of the Market Regulation Division (MRD), which acts as the PSE's enforcer in maintaining the integrity of the market and in minimizing the risk of the investing public.

The MRD does this ensuring that all trading participants observe the rules and code of conduct of the PSE and all related legislative and regulatory requirements.

The MIB reviews, affirms, reverses, or modifies decisions or actions of the MRD. It also initiates studies to enhance rules relating to audit, compliance and surveillance, adaptation for local conditions of best practices on governance