FSA, a boon to capital market developers

Hiran H. SENEWIRATNE

CAPITAL MARKET: The Financial Service Academy (FSA), is planning to become a premier institute in Sri Lanka to provide professional level education related to the development of capital markets and the insurance industry, its Director Dr P.M.C. Thilakerathne said.

This academy would conduct programmes for capital market developers and insurance sector developers to enhance their professional skills to be competitive at the international level.

FSA’s pivotal to meet the challenges of developing the capital market and the insurance sector in Sri Lanka.

This is envisaged that FSA would raise standards in the securities and financial services industry by imparting

 knowledge and training on practical, contemporary and innovative education, keeping with international standards and norms, he said.

Dr. Thilakerathne also said that IFA conducts three programmes namely Investor Awareness Programme for company directors, senior citizens and a Capital Market Diploma programme.

For insurance sector developers they have linked up with the Singapore College of Insurance (SCI) to conduct programmes for those industry personnel.

For this purpose they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SCI. For the insurance industry it is envisaged to offer Diploma Courses in Insurance and Programmes for Principal Officers of Insurance Broking Companies.

The entry qualification for these programmes is GCE (O/L) with industry experience for capital market programmes especially for the Diploma Programme. The intake for a batch would be around 50. Further, they are going to start a programme for GCE (A/L) students as well, he said.

According to Dr. Thilakerathne the Colombo Stock Market investment area is unknown to the public. In the case of the capital market more companies are coming into listing.

Therefore having professional qualifications on this area has become a more important factor, he said.

The Capital Market Diploma is an 18 months programme and classes are conducted by resource personnel in the industry on par with global standards. The insurance programmes will be also conducted soon, he said.

The reason to establish the FSA in the country is to produce professional capital market developers to international standards.

Today both indices in the Colombo Stock Market are reaching record levels in the region, therefore the stock market has become a popular investor arena.

Having a professional qualification in this area would definitely attract everybody in the industry and also could gain employment overseas as well, he said.

The SEC and the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka (IBSL) took the initiative to formulate the FSA to meet the challenges.

Over the years the securities market in Sri Lanka has developed extensively and it is today recognised as an efficient growing and fast improving securities market.

At such a stage of development the market would be expected to show signs of maturity and growing professionalism so that it could be benchmarked to international standards.

In order to perform at such levels the entire capital market community has to be aware of the standards expected by the global investing community and they should be sufficiently competent to keep abreast of new development that take place on a continuing basis being in a position to understand and apply these new phenomena.