The Colombo Stock Market has gained by 35% on average during the past 5 years. The growth during the last year was over 50% and the trend has continued so far during the year. With the expansion of CSE to regional cities such as Matara and Kandy, the contribution of outstation customers in stock market activities have increased significantly and this trend should be encouraged. However in comparison to other regional countries, our Insurance penetration rate is still low, although the developments in the industry during recent years have been impressive. As the country observes these developments in the financial sector, the regulatory mechanism has strengthened as it should be. The Central Bank continues to supervise the banking sector, finance companies, leasing companies, and money changers. Stock exchanges and stock brokers are regulated by the SEC. IBSL has the role of regulating the Insurance Industry. All these developments have necessitated more and more people who are skilled, knowledgeable and trained on financial services. As stated in the bestseller of Robert Kiyosaki, the reason as to why most of the poor and middle class people financially struggle, while the rich continue to remain rich for generations, is mainly because of the lack of financial intelligence and insight, as the real financial education is usually conveyed by parents to their children and not taught formally at schools. Perhaps, this applies not only to individuals but to countries as well.
May be, one of the reasons as to why we remain under-developed while developed countries progress faster, may be because of our shortage of human capital, with specific and adequate financial insights and awareness. If this situation is to be rectified, we need to develop well financially-educated people to operate financial institutions. We need well trained people to regulate these institutions. We need the investors to master the art of investment. All in all, we need our future generations to acquire sufficient financial knowledge. At the same time, I hope the knowledge that would be disseminated by this newly formed FSA would, also be valuable to change the attitudes of our financial journalists as well. In that regard, I hope that some of these courses may provide opportunities for our journalists too, to better understand financial service related subjects so that they will be able to provide a more meaningful interpretation of such matters. That too would, hopefully, enhance the general public’s understanding of financial operations and I look forward to such an outcome as well. As we all know there is today a vast majority of people who lack the knowledge to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that may be actually right in front of them. I think we have now taken the initiative to rectify that situation.