Australia Awards alumni promote international compliance culture in Sri Lanka
Posted: 21 August 2018
The Sri Lanka Association of Australia Awards Alumni (SLAAAA) has expressed its commitment to promote good governance as a part of the Association’s core strategies with the aim of making an impact and contributing to the sustainable development of Sri Lanka.
The President of the Association Anusha Nishanthi expressed this at the recently held second annual conference of SLAAAA titled The International Conference on Compliance Trends for Financial Institutions 2018 & Beyond. More than 120 compliance professionals from the financial sector including policymakers and top regulators of the country participated in the event, held at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo in July 2018.
With 20 experts sharing insights and practical solutions for the most challenging issues faced by compliance officers in the financial sector, the event provided one of the best platforms for compliance professionals in Sri Lanka focusing on a wide variety of topics. These included regulatory expectations and Anti Money Laundering (AML) Compliance, the need of artificial intelligence for AML Compliance, data protection and technology priorities for compliance, global trends for investment and finance compliance and innovation, stagnation and future of the compliance professionals.
Australia Awards alumni in Sri Lanka organised ‘The International Conference on Compliance Trends for Financial Institutions 2018 & Beyond’
The State Minister of Finance Honorable Eran Wickramaratne attended the event as the Chief Guest highlighting the importance of financial sector compliance in the country’s development process. His Excellency Bryce Hutchesson, the Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, as the Guest of Honor, emphasised the importance of compliance management in Sri Lanka’s financial industry to achieve development goals and discussed compliance trends in Australia, which Sri Lanka could learn from in order to reach international standards.
Vajira Wijegunawardena, the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC), delivered the keynote address and discussed the proposed new SEC Act requirements and the Commission’s standpoint on capital market compliance and governance matters.
Addressing the conference the Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Yvette Fernando, appreciated the efforts of SLAAAA in organising a forward-looking event of this nature. She stressed that the conference touched on a range of important themes relevant and timely for financial institutions on the changing regulatory landscape and highlighted the responsibilities of the Board of Directors and the senior management of financial institutions for better compliance management.
Renuke Wijewardena (Colombo Stock Exchange), Gayani Godellawatta (Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka), Ayesh Ariyasinghe (Financial Intelligence Unit, Central Bank of Sri Lanka), Micheal Rasmussen (Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Pundit from USA), and Anatoly Kirivsky (Optiver Australia) were among the speakers and panelists at the event.