The Colombo Stock Exchange wants to lift its active retail investor base to between 100,000 and 150,000 by putting a branch in every district and licensing agents to canvass investors outside Colombo, its chairman Dimuthu Abeyesekera said.

He was speaking in Colombo at a forum titled “From Resilience to Sustainable Growth”, organised jointly by the CSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission, EconomyNext reported at 10.09 a.m. Colombo time.

The participation problem

Active market participants currently number about 60,000, down from a peak of 78,000 reached last year. During 2023–2024 the figure was just 22,000 to 23,000.

“Right now, it has come down to 60,000 because of the market situation. But what I’m saying is… only point 0.2% of the public who can invest are in the stock market; that is not enough,” Abeyesekera said.

On those figures the target represents a roughly two- to two-and-a-half-fold increase on the current base.

What the branch network already looks like

The exchange opened three regional branches this year, with plans to add more over the next two years until every district has a physical presence.

The filing does not give the current branch total. This desk’s own archive supplies the baseline: when the Galle branch opened in April 2026 it was the CSE’s 12th, with a 13th scheduled for Gampaha in May, following branches in Matara, Kandy, Kurunegala, Negombo, Jaffna, Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Ratnapura, Panadura, Bandarawela and Kegalle. Sri Lanka has 25 districts, so the chairman’s stated goal implies a network roughly double the size of the one reported six months ago.

“Our target is to have a branch in every district. That should be our target. Then only we can definitely go and show this Colombo Stock Exchange,” he said.

Each newly established branch already houses operations for seven to eight stockbroking firms — consistent with the eight firms reported at the Galle opening.

The agent scheme

The CSE is awaiting regulatory approval from the SEC to introduce an agent scheme allowing licensed agents to canvass retail investors outside Colombo.

Abeyesekera said that while digital account opening is fully operational, physical branches remain critical to building public visibility and trust, drawing a parallel with retail commercial banking networks.

Not reported

The filing gives no timeline for the agent scheme’s approval, no indication of when the SEC might rule, and no detail of how agents would be licensed, paid or supervised — the question that usually determines whether such a scheme raises or damages retail confidence.

It gives no date for reaching the 100,000–150,000 target, no cost for the branch rollout, and no explanation of what is meant by “the market situation” that cut participation from 78,000 to 60,000. It does not say which three branches opened this year or which districts remain uncovered. No SEC official is quoted, despite the SEC co-organising the forum and holding the approval the exchange is waiting on.

Single source. This desk checked the Daily Mirror’s breaking-news listing, the Hiru News homepage rail and the NewsFirst rail directly; no other verified newsroom had filed on the forum at the time of writing. The Daily Mirror carried the day’s market close separately, which is a different story. Ada Derana has returned an HTTP 403 block to this desk for some 48 consecutive days.