Ceylon Asset Management adopts CFA Reporting Standards

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

Ceylon Asset Management Co. Ltd. (CAM) has adopted the Global Investments Performance Standards (GIPS) developed and administrated by CharteredFinancial Analyst (CFA) Institute, USA, for the first time in Sri Lanka.

This is an initiative promoted by the CFA Sri Lanka Society in developing Sri Lanka’s Capital Market standards to enhance international credibility.

Rajiv Casie Chitty, CFA GIPS Chair spearheaded this initiative on behalf of CFA Sri Lanka.

GIPS is a global investment performance presentation standard which setsbest practices for the calculation and presenting of investment performance that is readily comparable among investment firms and countries.

Investment managers that adhere to investment performance standards assure investorsthat the firm’s investment performance is complete and fairly presented.

In Sri Lanka the investment management industry has been growing rapidly interms of number of investors, asset under management and competition among firms.

The Unit Trust industry which had Rs. 9.41 billion asset undermanagement in 2009 has doubled to Rs.18.69 billion in 2011. The numbers of Unit Trust companies have increased from 5 to 10 over the same period.

Accordingly, return calculations and performance presentation should be uniform in order to fairly compare the performance of companies, and other countries with Sri Lanka.

CAM is the first company to adopt GIPS in Sri Lanka. CAM currently manages six funds including the Ceylon Income Fund, which was best performing Unit Trust in 2011 and the best performing Income Fund in 2010. All the fund performances are presented in accordance with GIPS. All polices, calculation procedures and performance presentation are available on the CAM web site.