Under Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Act No 15 of 1995, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, the Premier Accountancy Professional Body is empowered to adopt the Accounting and Auditing Standards in Sri Lanka.

The Institute develops and adopts Standards based on the International Standards to improve the Financial Reporting in Sri Lanka. In recognising the need of having Standards in the area of Financial Instruments, the Institute has adopted the SLAS 44 - Financial Instruments: Presentation and SLAS 45 - Recognition and Measurement which are the corresponding local standards to International Accounting Standards (IASs) 32 and 39.

In order to provide the Financial Statement preparers with adequate time, the Institute has decided to make it effective for the Annual Periods beginning on or after 01 January 2011 (and not 01 January 2009 as communicated earlier) with early adoption being encouraged. For the full details on the Effective date please refer the Announcement under the Technical Section http://www.icasrilanka.com/.