SEC continues engagement with capital market stakeholders

These interactions were held as part of a series of meetings that the Chairman commenced with various stakeholders after assuming office in January 2020. During the meetings, the Chairman briefed the delegates of the reasons that prevented the stock  market from being opened during the recent curfew which was imposed by the Government in order to minimize the risk of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) spreading.

He went on to state that in order to ensure that there were no operational difficulties in similar situations in the future, he had appointed a joint committee comprising members of the SEC  and Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) to digitize all core activities of the market and that the process of such digitization was progressing smoothly and that they were hopeful that within a period of three months it would be possible to have such a system in place.

The delegation from the Chamber pointed out the need to encourage more companies to list as well as to have in place an apex committee comprising capital market stakeholders including the SEC, CSE, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Ministry of Finance and other key  policy makers including industry bodies to decide on matters related to capital market policy.

The Chairman explained on the need to have a robust regulatory system in order to ensure the integrity of the market but said that the SEC will certainly adopt a very pragmatic and practical approach in the process of regulation and called upon the delegates to point out any particular Rules or Regulations which they consider to be too rigid so that they could be looked at by the SEC.  

The Chairman also informed them that the Commission  was at  present going  through  the  draft SEC  Act and  the Demutualization Act and that its recommendations would be submitted to the Ministry of Finance before the end of next month and assured them that  steps would be taken to ensure their speedy enactment. The law firms were requested to submit any recommendations they had with regard to the draft laws as well as on any other regulatory matter.

In the discussions with the stockbroker firms, the SEC Chairman explained the work that was in progress with regard to the digitization of the stock market and called upon the broker firms to support and actively participate in the ongoing initiatives of the SEC-CSE joint committee.

He also referred to the other joint committee that had been established to broad base the market and create awareness amongst the general public and called upon the stockbroker firms to partner with the SEC and CSE in these initiatives and to play a more aggressive role.