The Bank of Ceylon (BOC) and the Commercial Bank (Commercial) have been refused sanction by the Central Bank to set up share broking firms citing prudential requirements, informed sources said. Banks like NDB, Sampath, HNB and DFCC already have broking sbsidiaries.
They said that it’s not clear ‘what’ these requirements are, but both these banks were refused verbally. “They are not setting up these units,” a source told the Business Times. Analysts point out that these banks are better picks for share broking with their reach rather than the other shortlisted firms who try to tap the elusive high networth clientele.
In July, Commercial, BOC, Richard Pieris, Mackwoods Group’s Calridge Ltd and India Infolines Ltd were short listed for a retail licence by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). On Monday India Infolines, Richard Peiris and Calridge were issued licences.
The LOLC Group and the Malaysian high networth investor, Dato’ Seri Tiong King Sing subsequent to their appeal to the SEC, were also shortlisted.
“Since BOC and Commercial are not getting this membership, the SEC decided to grant provisional membership to two other promoters - Takashi Igarashi Safe (a firm connected to derivatives specialist Mangala Boyagoda) and Ascot Holdings and increase the approved firms to seven instead of the earlier five firms,” one analyst said. |
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