Bureaucracy at the CSE
I was prompted to write this letter after seeing the recent response by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) to a 6th December story in the Business Times titled “Hapless Depositors caught in a web of red tape spun by the CSE”The issue I have with the CSE is that its officers are either slow in decision-making or reluctant to take responsibility. As an example take the case of deceased persons whose heirs wish to sell the shares owned by the deceased and lodged with the CSE. t is all but impossible for the Executor of a deceased person to sell his/her shares, due to the bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the CSE.
The paperwork for such a sale basically requires only – proof of the Executorship, and the consent of the heirs.Consequently there are today, many heirs of deceased persons who are in possession of millions of rupees worth of shares, which they are unable to dispose of. These investments are stuck in limbo, at the CSE. The CSE’s procedures are bureaucratic in the extreme – for example where a document merely requires one word to be crossed out or deleted, the CSE does not contact the relevant signatory directly but returns all documentation to the broker – that too after a suitable delay. The broker must then re-submit documentation to the CSE, whereas a simple telephone call could resolve the issue.
Former investor