The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) has moved fast to quell fears that trading on the internet might expose investors to fraudsters.

The development comes after the bourse has launched its new automated trading system (ATS) to increase efficiency.

BSE trading and listing manager, Dudu Garekwe, has said the system has a surveillance technique to keep checking all trades.

“Apart from efficiency, the ATS will also improve surveillance as we can monitor the transactions as and when the take place rather than manually. It will also bring diversity in terms of investor base as some foreign investors may have been shunning our market because it was not automated,” said Garekwe.

“As long as the transfer secretaries and stock brokers do their work, any trade that goes through the system will be legitimate because the ATS will actually check against the information that we have in our Central Securities Depository (CSD) system,” she added.

Garekwe says the ATS will lure more investors to the bourse as it adds an additional means of buying and selling shares to the traditional manually trading.

In addition, she says that ATS will allow for continuous trading and for periodic auctions which will enhance price discovery.

Meanwhile BSE has also upgraded its CSD system to be compatible with the ATS and to allow borrowing and lending of securities instead of direct sales, boosting liquidity in the process.

“Our visibility internationally is expected to improve,” said Garekwe.