In a written announcement, the CSE board said the new law would create an unregulated bureaucratic monster and negate its own role in the stock market. The CSE board said that whilst it had nothing against reinforcing the supervisory role of the SEC, the bill was contrary to fundamental principles of management and supervision, and would adversely affect the stock market.

The CSE announcement said that as it stands, the bill goes further than giving the SEC a supervisory role. Rather, it said, the bill appears to suggest a competed transfer of power from the CSE "resulting in the role of the CSE being either limited or made useless."

The statement continued: 'The power of imposing fines on members of the CSE board, who are appointed by the Council of Ministers through article 26 is specific and its existence can not be disputed. This power is in effect an insult to members of the board and to the state which appointed them, and to the best or our knowledge, is not in line with any other European Union country's stock exchange legislation.....The range of its authority means the SEC will be unable to carry out its basic role, which is supervision and control.'

The CSE board also said that it believes the new-style SEC created by the bill would not be fit to oversee the planned creation and supervision of mutual funds (something the CSE has been hoping to get off the ground for a long time), and would need so many people to staff it that it would become bureaucratic and costly.

The CSE board has signalled its determination to fight the proposed bill and is due to submit its viewpoints to the government in the next few days.