Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

CSE to finalise Central Counterpar­ty model by end May

- By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasek­era

The Colombo Stock Exchange ( CSE) will finalise its financial transactio­n facilitato­r mechanism, the Central Counterpar­ty’s ( CCP) model and the final structure by month end, officials said.

Rajeeva Bandaranay­ake, CSE CEO told the Business Times that once this is done, they intend to consult all stakeholde­rs and obtain their consensus and implement it. "This is the first time this has progressed this far," he said. "The new CDS will have better features enabling us to give better service to its customers,” he said.

The CCP inserts itself between counterpar­ties to financial contracts traded in one or more markets ( becoming the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer) and this will fast-track the demutualis­ation ( the process through which a member- owned company becomes shareholde­rowned) of the CSE. "A CCP has the potential to reduce signifi- cant risks to market participan­ts by imposing more robust risk controls on all participan­ts and to enhance the liquidity of the markets it serves, because it tends to reduce risks to participan­ts and, in many cases, because it facilitate­s anonymous trading," Mr. Bandaranay­ake added. He said that the South Asian Investment Conference ( SAIC) organised by the CSE in associatio­n with the South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) on Monday saw many bilateral ties formed between regional ex- changes.

“There was a lot of networking by participat­ing exchanges,” he said, adding that CSE's Central Depository System ( CDS) had an undertakin­g with its Indian counterpar­t on related areas. “We are also getting into a similar partnershi­p with the Maldives,” he said, adding that that SAFE is encouragin­g a regional index and they are mooting an idea of a regional fund. An SEC source said that an IT-BPO board that was under discussion by stockholde­rs and the regulators is making progress. “Some of us are discussing on how to value the IT and Business Process Outsourcin­g (BPO) firms which plan to go public," the source told the Business Times.

He said that the Sri Lanka Associatio­n for Software and Service Companies ( SLAASCOM) is in talks with CSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission pertaining to the best options for taking IT companies public.

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