Our mission is to enable wealth generation for all citizens: CSE chairman

Reproduced below are some excerpts from the speech made by CSE Chairman Dumith Fernando at the recent special bell ringing ceremony organized at the CSE under the patronage of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to mark the Digitalization of the Sri Lankan Stock Market. The launch event which had been themed as ‘Hyper-Leap to the future’ saw the participation of key policymakers and industry leaders of the country.

“In this 35th year of operation of the Colombo Stock Exchange, we are gathered today to launch the Digitalization of the CSE and its entry into the Future”.

“The step we are taking today in partnership with, and enabled by, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka to Digitalize the stock market – is a first step towards a transformation that can reposition Sri Lanka in a digital financial marketplace. While this may be the first step, it is a major milestone in the advancement for the CSE. Your presence here today, to witness this momentous leap in our nation’s financial infrastructure is a great pleasure and an honor to us. Therefore, on behalf of the Board of Directors and Management of the Colombo Stock Exchange, I warmly welcome you to this home of the country’s stock market and this event. We are deeply grateful, especially to you Hon. Prime Minister, for your presence here today”.

“At the CSE our mission is clear. Our goal is to Revitalize long-term Capital Mobilization for businesses, and to Enable Wealth generation for all citizens by providing a Trusted Venue for Trading and Depository Services”.

“Now if we are serious about enabling wealth generation for all citizens through the CSE, there are 3 things we need to do –

1) Make it easier for citizens to access and learn about the stock market;

2) Make it easier and more efficient to complete transactions – end-to-end; and

3) Make it cheaper to perform all these activities.

The Digitalization of the CSE does exactly these things. With the new Digitalization app being launched today, users will be able to open an account at the Central Depositary System (commonly known as the CDS) and a stockbroker from anywhere in the country in a matter of minutes and begin trading within an hour. In addition, from today, trade settlements including sending trade confirmations and payment settlement can be done entirely online. With this, the Colombo Stock Exchange can also safely operate, completely virtually, even during a lockdown like we had earlier this year. Today’s launch of the new and improved websites of the CSE, CDS and SEC as well as the SEC’s Youtube channel will further support Digitalization by instantly delivering much needed information to issuers and investors”.

“This launch is a result of a large team of people who have worked together tirelessly for months. In the interest of time, I will leave it to our CEO, Rajeeva Bandaranaike to recognize all those who contributed to this effort. But I must say in no uncertain terms, that this milestone was achieved through a combination of the leadership given by the SEC, as well as extensive collaboration between the SEC, CSE and the member stockbroker firms and I thank you all for that”.