Friday, 10 August 2018

Sri Lanka stock market depository offers digital share accounts, IPOs

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s stock market depository and settlement service provider said it would offer digital account opening options, removing paperwork for investors, along with electronic share issues and voting for shareholders.

The Central Depository Systems (Pvt) Ltd (CDS), a fully owned subsidiary of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), said it was announcing a number of new offerings to make stock market investments easier and faster.

CDS has established a new unit to handle these areas of services which is different from the operations of the depository.

A statement quoted Nalin Fonseka, Head of CDS, as saying they are looking beyond their core function with new service offerings focused on developing into a more customer centric, customer experience driven organization.

“We intend to introduce an end-to-end digital CDS account opening process in the near future, which will go a long way in making the market accessible around the country and also in broad-basing our local investor base, which is pivotal to the progress of the Sri Lankan stock market in the long-run.”

With the introduction of this new service, CDS will have the ability to capture and verify information on prospective investors digitally through a mobile application in real-time in a convenient and secure manner, Fonseka said.

“This will facilitate a faster and smoother account opening process for prospective investors, offering them the option of not engaging in what would be perceived as a lengthy, paper-work driven, physical application process.

“The first step of this endeavor is to fully digitize the documentation process, and we are presently working with stockbroker firms to this end.”

The CDS also plans to implement a fully-fledged E-IPO system to facilitate a more efficient and convenience driven initial public offering process with E-Voting for shareholders also being planned, Fonseka said.

“The ‘ease of doing business’ is a key parameter for prospective investors when selecting a service provider in the investment services space which CDS operates in,” he said.

Fonseka said the CDS has expanded service offering to include corporate action and registrar services for companies listed on the CSE and also privately held unlisted companies.

The new service has been well received by listed companies with eight companies signed up for registrar services.

“Our registrar services offer coverage for corporate actions such as Dividends, Rights Issues, Capitalizations of Reserves, Mandatory Offers, Voluntary Offers, Sub- Divisions of Shares and Capital Reductions,” Fonseka said.

In addition, new service introductions also include CDS maintaining the company’s share ledger, attending to regulatory and statutory requirements and delivering other forms of administrative support functions for listed entities.

“Considering that these services are linked to our core services, we also have the ability to offer cost efficiencies and considerable convenience to listed companies and their investors,” Fonseka said.

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