Reshuffle of three Directors’ roles at SEC Secretariat

Following the initial restructuring, including the appointment of the Deputy Director General, the SEC has implemented a fresh reshuffle of roles of Directors in the Secretariat.

The new Director Surveillance is Namal Kamalgoda, who was previously Director Supervision. He replaces Chandu Epitawala, who has now been assigned Director Corporate Affairs. Surana Fernando, who was Director Corporate Affairs previously, has been re-designated as Director Supervision.

The rest in the senior management are intact, with Ianthie Jayaratne remaining as Director Finance and Administration, Vajira Wijegunawardena as Director Capital Market Development and Research and Ayanthi Abeywickrema as Director Legal and Enforcement.

The team is headed by Prof. Hareendra Dissabandara as Acting Director General and Director Capital Market Education and Training and Dhammika Perera as Deputy Director General and Director Investigations.

The Daily FT last month exclusively reported the realignment of core roles within the SEC Secretariat with investigations, supervision and surveillance coming under Dhammika Perera and the rest of the divisions under Prof. Dissabandara.

The Corporate Affairs division is responsible for ensuring that investors are provided with material information in order to make informed investment decisions. The division reviews market disclosures and other information that listed companies are required to disseminate to the public to reduce asymmetry of information. The division conducts a Financial Reporting Surveillance Program aimed at improving the quality of the financial reporting of the listed companies.

Main activities of the Surveillance division include effectively monitoring trading activities to detect and prevent any transactions or trades that violate the SEC Act; conducting preliminary examinations into suspicious activities/price and volume movements in the securities market and violations of securities laws and regulations; examining surveillance referrals of the Colombo Stock Exchange brought to the attention of the SEC from time to time; examining complaints made by investors or members of the general public and referring them to the Surveillance Committee; preparing reports for submission to the Surveillance Committee on preliminary examinations of suspicious activity; and scrutinising news sources such as press articles, corporate disclosures vis-à-vis market price behaviour, etc.

The Supervision division is responsible for the licensing/registration, supervision, and compliance monitoring and onsite/offsite examinations of stock broking companies, unit trust managing companies and market intermediaries (investment manager, margin provider, underwriter, credit rating agency and clearing house).

The supervisory role of the division involves both on site and off site supervision on the financial viability and business conduct of market participants towards investor protection and thereby building investor confidence in the capital market. Onsite/offsite supervision is carried out adopting a risk-based supervisory methodology focusing on different risk categories such as prudential, liquidity, financial, credit, operational, legal and reputational risk with emphasis on compliance of market participants with applicable rules and regulations to strengthen market oversight.