Capital Alliance (CAL) is an investment bank managing over Rs. 200 billion in assets, with operations spanning stockbroking, treasuries, investment management, market insights, and expansion into emerging markets. Committed to leveraging technology, CAL has introduced services like CAL GPT – an AI-powered chatbot that provides insights on the Sri Lankan economy, investment options, and tax guidance. As CAL celebrates its 24th anniversary in 2024, members of its accomplished dynamic and young executive committee reflect on the key milestones that shaped CAL from a standalone Primary Dealer in government securities to a digital-driven, customer-focused investment bank aiming to broaden access to financial services in Sri Lanka and beyond.
Kanishke Mannakkara: Group Chief Executive Officer
As CAL celebrates 24 years, what has been the most significant turning point in the company’s journey, and how do you see CAL continuing to lead and innovate in Sri Lanka’s financial sector over the next decade?
Given our growth trajectory over the last two decades, it is hard to point to one moment. We have had many notable achievements since our founding as a standalone dealer in the secondary market for government securities: we subsequently became a Primary Dealer for government securities before venturing into stockbroking, wealth management and investment banking.
In terms of the future, we are doubling down on our ethos of innovation and digitization. One of our primary objectives is to democratize Sri Lanka’s financial markets by leveraging technology.
Sharmali Perera: Chief Risk & Compliance Officer
As CAL has grown, managing risk and compliance has become even more critical. How have risk management strategies evolved over the years, and what emerging risks do you see impacting the future of the financial services industry?
Our main challenge on the compliance front has been to keep up with the pace of financial market innovation. We can be proud that CAL has been at the forefront of innovating financial products, and this has also led to us being extremely stringent on our compliance processes and ensuring they keep up with the evolving landscape.
We will continue to keep pace with an industry rapidly evolving and becoming more interconnected. That is our challenge, and therein lies the opportunity.
Deshan Pushparajah: Managing Director, Global Markets & Investment Banking/Country Head – CAL Bangladesh
With your dual role overseeing global markets and expanding CAL’s presence into Bangladesh, what challenges and opportunities have shaped your approach to growth, and what do you foresee as the next frontier for CAL’s international operations?
CAL aims to be the world’s leading frontier market investment bank. Given the population size across these markets, we feel there is a massive opportunity for us to expand into these regions.
The challenge is to transport our expertise from Sri Lanka across these geographies and adapt to the various nuances of each market. We have succeeded in this in Bangladesh and intend to take these learnings to our second overseas market within the next 24 months.
Tharindra Kulasinghe: Chief Information Officer
Technology has played an integral role in CAL’s evolution. What technological innovations have had the most impact, and how do you see digital transformation shaping the future of investment and wealth management?
Technology has always been a driver of growth at CAL. It plays a pivotal role in transforming how we deliver value to our clients. One of the most significant technological innovations has been the development of our digital investment platform, CAL Online, which democratizes access to retail markets. Through this platform, retail investors across Sri Lanka can now seamlessly access a full range of capital market products, empowering them to take control of their financial futures.
AI and data analytics enable faster and more precise insights into market dynamics and the broader macroeconomic environment, enabling smart decision-making and informed strategies that benefit CAL and our customers.
Digital transformation will continue to reshape investment and wealth management. It will broaden access to investment opportunities, offering more choices for customers to grow their wealth. With enhanced data-driven insights, clients can make more informed decisions and enjoy increased flexibility in managing their investments to suit their unique needs and lifestyles. Digital platforms will make wealth management more dynamic, responsive, and tailored to individual goals.
Milanka Induruwage: Executive Vice President, Head of Equities
The equities market has seen considerable shifts over the years. What have been the drivers of CAL’s success in equities, and how do you plan to navigate the evolving market to continue delivering value for investors?
Our research differentiates us from our competitors.
At CAL, our insistent focus on macroeconomic research has enabled us to uncover, explain and predict economic trends, allowing us to deliver consistently good results for our equity-side clients.
As we continue to grow as a business, I do not doubt that our research expertise and client-first approach will help us remain market leaders across all the investment banking segments we are in.
Udeeshan Jonas: Chief Strategist
Strategic foresight has been essential to CAL’s growth. Over the years, what key strategies have contributed to CAL’s long-term success, and what trends or disruptions do you believe will shape the next phase of CAL’s growth?
On the strategy front at CAL, one thing that has contributed to our long-term success has been our substantial investment in data analytics and macroeconomic research. This predictive knowledge has served us well, ensuring that our client portfolios have consistently outperformed the market even in periods of economic volatility.
Our international expansion has also been a pillar of our growth strategy. Establishing operations in Bangladesh, a market with significant growth potential, allowed us to extend our expertise beyond borders. This move has reinforced CAL’s position as a regional leader in financial services, opening new opportunities in high-growth frontier markets.
Several trends will shape the next phase of our journey. Embracing digitalization and artificial intelligence will be crucial steps, and we are already incorporating these into our research and operations. Together with our overseas expansion, this research strategy will remain central to our growth and competitive edge as we evolve into a global investment bank.
Lahiru Ariyaratne: CEO of Capital Alliance Securities (Private) Limited
Growth has been a core focus at CAL, especially in retail investment. What initiatives have been most effective in driving growth across CAL’s divisions, and how do you envision the next growth phase for both CAL and Capital Alliance Securities?
Technology is a significant factor behind our growth in the retail segment. By digitizing our platform, making online signups the norm, and making accessing our products hassle-free, we have been able to service a broad range of clients that more traditional competitors find hard to access.
Our next stage of growth as a company will be two-pronged. Building on our success in the Sri Lankan market and expanding our footprint here is the first prong, and the second will be to continue our foreign expansion across Bangladesh and other frontier markets.
Nishok Goonasekera: CEO, Capital Alliance Partners Limited
Investment banking is a crucial component of CAL’s service offerings. What have been the most impactful transactions or developments for CAL in this space, and how do you plan to strengthen CAL’s leadership position in investment banking?
Since its inception, CAL’s IB team has been fortunate to be involved in most of Sri Lanka’s landmark transactions, including several of the country’s largest IPOs and M&A transactions across multiple sectors.
Our leadership in the space is driven predominantly by an understanding of changing client needs and our ability to craft new products to fit these requirements. Our recent issuing of Sri Lanka’s first-ever Green Bond is a testament to this, and we intend to keep broadening the industry’s horizons in the years to come.
Sanura Silva: Senior Vice President, Head of Treasury
CAL Treasuries is an integral part of CAL’s financial services portfolio. What innovations or strategies have had the most impact on the Treasury vertical’s success, and how do you see the vertical evolving in the coming years?
We can attribute the success of CALT to 3 key areas. The first is risk management: how fast you can drive a car depends on your confidence in the breaks, and that is our approach to risk management. It has proved very prudent in an industry where we often deal with high leverage and risk. The second is research: we put a lot of effort and time into conducting macro research, and that gives us great insights to predict interest rate movements, which, in our field, dictates success and failure. The third area in tech innovation: as with the rest of the group, the treasuries vertical has also pushed digitization to democratize what was generally a product accessible only to the very wealthy. Today, CAL is Sri Lanka’s first company to offer retail investors the chance to invest in Government Securities, and we plan on expanding this side of the business in the future.
Anushi Jayasinghe: Chief Human Resources Officer
As CAL has grown over the past 24 years, how has the company’s approach to talent management and organizational culture evolved, and what are your priorities for fostering innovation and growth through people in the years ahead?
CAL’s journey has happened in stages. Initially, we were like a small startup, with a few employees playing multiple roles. As the business grew and evolved into the established corporation it is today, the look and feel of the team has changed, but we are very much still aligned with that small business mentality that puts our employees above everything else.
Over the last two decades, we have strived to identify and nurture Sri Lanka’s best young finance talent, and the average age of our Exco is a testament to this. We will live by this ethos into the future. We hope to see many more young recruits join us, gain experience, and rise to senior leadership positions to propel CAL into the future.