Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) President Francis Lim has officially stepped down from office Sunday after spearheading five landmark legislative reforms aimed at boosting investor participation in the stock market.

Lim assumed office on September 15, 2004 and served two terms as president and chief executive offircer, the longest term for an Exchange president in the bourse’s history.

The PSE said earlier that its chairman Hans Sicat will head the CEO search and transition committee while the PSE has appointed Atty. Val Antonio Suarez as chief operating officer and General Counsel Roel Refran will be the concurrent head of Issuer Regulation Division.

“I am forever grateful to the PSE and its board of directors for giving me the distinct honor and privilege of serving as president and CEO for an unprecedented term of more than five years,” said Lim.

He added that “the past years, while not exactly a walk in the park, have been very fulfilling both professionally and personally. The experience has allowed me to stretch my limits as a person and as a manager to a point where I never thought it was possible to reach.

Lim urged the board of directors and his would-be successor to sustain corporate governance initiatives to help build and maintain investor confidence in the stock market.

Along this line, Lim has been pushing for the separation of the regulatory and business functions of the Exchange by spinning off the Market Regulation Division or MRD (and eventually the Issuer Regulation Division or IRD).

The MRD is in charge of broker regulation while the IRD is in charge of the regulation of listed companies.

“The proposed segregation will meaningfully avoid the conflicts of interest inherent between a stock exchange and a listed company. It will not only strengthen the governance and credibility of the

Exchange as a regulator, but it will also enable the PSE to devote more time to business development activities as a for-profit entity. The PSE is a publicly listed company so it does have a fundamental mandate to enhance shareholder value,” Lim explained.