Mr. Kithsiri Wanigasekara started his career as a trainee accountant at Noritake Lanka Porcelain Limited; he holds a postgraduate degree in Business Administration and he is also an accountant by profession. Mr. Wanigasekara also worked at Sinhaputhra Finance Limited in Kandy for a period of 6 years after which he was promoted to the post of Finance Director.
Mr. Kithsiri Wanigasekara |
Due to his dedication and professional expertise he was able to be promoted to the post of Managing Director and finally become the Chairman/Managing Director of Sinhaputhra Finance, where he worked for a period of almost 18 years and was instrumental in leading a team within the company towards greater heights. He was then invited to join the Abans Group of Companies, where he currently provides his services as the Executive Director for Abans Financial Services Limited.
Mr. Wanigasekara has also held a number of honorable titles during his career; he has provided his services as the Chairman for the Finance Companies Association of Sri Lanka for a period for three consecutive years. During his career he has also been appointed by the state as the Chairman of the Kandy Hotel Company (1938) Limited, which is the holding company of Queens and Swiss Hotels in Kandy from the year 1994 to 2001. Mr. Wanigasekara has over 27 years of experience in the finance company sector and is therefore considered to be one of the most senior individuals in the industry. The Sunday Times spoke to Mr. Kithsiri Wanigasekara, to gain a better insight into the current status of Sri Lanka's financial industry.
"I see the Abans brand as a very vibrant brand with which I can drive the company towards greener pastures; I joined the Abans group on the 1st of June 2009. Currently the finance industry comprises of 35 financial institutions that are registered under the Monitory Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). The finance industry members comprises of different sizes with regards to their total asset values and deposits, where in which the topmost members constitute to around 45% of the total assets and deposits.
The medium sized finance members comprise of 10% to 25% of the industry and the small scale members account for only 5% of the industry. Until last year the finance companies were doing relatively well in terms of their lending activities and deposit mobilizations etc., whilst building their profits at a rapid rate. Although the world economic crisis did not have a direct impact on Sri Lanka's economy, the collapsing of some of the country's reputed banking and finance companies several months ago had a significant adverse impact on the country's economy and the public confidence", says Mr. Wanigasekara.
Many financial as well as banking institutions even prior to this incident have been encountering many difficulties with regards to their recoveries, with regards to debts and loans provided to the general public and other business organizations. Due to this the Non Performing Loan (NPL) ratios were also on the increase which in turn limited the cash flow and deposit inflows from coming into organizations. Therefore many financial institutions encountered severe problems during these times, and only the very strong players were able to survive, the turbulent times especially faced during the past few months.
With a run of their deposits coming into place a majority of the financial institutions shifted their focus towards paying up their depositors and as a result of this the profitability of these institutions came down. Although this situation is currently improving with deposit mobilizations recording a marginal growth for the last several months it has become a very gradual process which will take time to get back to normal. Therefore all financial institutions will have to improve in their lending activities and bring down their non performing asset ratios in addition to their normal recovery processes in order to make an upturn in their profit levels.
"The industry so far seems to be recovering in terms of public confidence therefore the financial institutions will have to play a more important and dominant role if they are to stabilize and strengthen their loan books and profit levels. In my opinion the financial industry status in Sri Lanka is not as rosy as one would like to think. However no financial institution will fail if they properly adhere to the rules and regulations set out by the regulator for finance companies which is the CBSL. The implementation of Good Corporate Governance practices that include proper risk management within organizations including appointment of independent directors, as per CBSL directives that came into effect from 1st January 2009, is way the forward for finance companies", further stated Mr. Wanigasekara. |
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