SEC and CSE ring the bell for financial literacy

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) and the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) joined stock exchanges from around the world to ‘Ring the market opening bell for Financial Literacy’, as part of the seventh annual World Investor Week (WIW) in 2023, launched by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The global campaign was launched with the objective of raising awareness on the importance of investor education and investor protection. Global stock exchanges worldwide have joined the “Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy initiative in 2023”, which is an initiative pioneered by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) to bring stakeholders together for a call to action on improving financial literacy.

The Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy Ceremony organized at the CSE was part of a series of initiatives to mark World Investor Week 2023. The event was attended by Faizal Salieh, Chairman SEC, . Chinthaka Mendis, Director General SEC, Tushara Jayaratne, Deputy Director General SEC, Sujeewa Peiris, Director CSE, Rajeeva Bandaranaike, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) CSE, Renuke Wijayawardhane, Chief Regulatory Officer (CRO) CSE, and the senior management and the staff of the SEC and the CSE.

Welcoming the invitees to the ceremony, the CSE CEO, Rajeeva Bandaranaike said, “Today is an important event where we join our peer stock exchanges globally to ring the bell as a call for action, to bring attention to investors and to focus on issues such as investor protection, investor education and financial literacy.”

“In this connection, we would like to appreciate the partnership and the support that the SEC and the stock brokering firms have been given to CSE, for a long period of time in the area of investor education.”

Mr. Bandaranaike also said, “The importance of financial literacy has already become a critical factor, due to the lack of knowledge and the lack of understanding in investing in equity products in terms of understanding the principle of risk and return and how to manage and minimize risk. Other emerging and frontier markets are also facing this issue, thus, there is a global effort to raise the levels of financial literacy.”

“Thus, it is evident that an increased focus to improving financial literacy has become very important and we are fortunate that we have the support from all the parties for that who represent the market, regulator, and stock brokering firms,” he added.

The CEO also pledged, to continue to work with the industry to keep investing resources into improving financial literacy.