SLASSCOM publishes Finance and Accounting Outsourcing report on Sri Lanka

The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Association (SLASSCOM) has published an industry report on the Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) sector in Sri Lanka.

The report is titled ‘Sri Lanka Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Overview’ and is available for sale at SLASSCOM. The report is prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and sponsored by Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

This report provides unique selling propositions of Sri Lanka’s accounting talent and vital statistics about the talent pool and FAO industry, which will help to market Sri Lanka as a FAO centre of excellence.

“Sri Lanka has been recognised as a service hub for financial services outsoaring globally for our niche competency and we are emerging as a centre of excellence among top destinations for FAO. The availability of a large pool of skilled finance and accounting professionals makes FAO one of the most logical niche competencies to continue to build capacity. The key export markets for Sri Lankan FAO industry are USA, Europe and Asia Pacific regions,” said Dinesh Saparamadu, Chairman of SLASSCOM.

FAO synopsis

Sri Lanka is fast emerging as a global centre of excellence for finance and accounting outsourcing, having been featured in a number of international studies as a promising destination for outsourcing services.

In 2009, global consulting firm, AT Kearney, ranked Sri Lanka at number 16 on their top 20 global outsourcing destinations list, while Global Services Magazine ranked Colombo amongst their top 20 emerging outsourcing cities in the world.

Many global companies, including; UK Accounting and Legal Services Centre of WNS, Investment Research Centre of Amba Research, UK Banking Centre of HSBC, and Finance & Accounting Centre of RR Donnelley have chosen to set up their delivery centres in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka offers a rapidly growing skilled workforce which is low cost, highly productive, English speaking and loyal. Sri Lankans are noticeably friendly, creative, and adapt very fast to different cultures and environments, and this results in easy integration to operating units of other counties.

Colombo is comparatively cost competitive and has a lower upward wage pressure than many established global sourcing destinations, and the Country’s labour costs rank 15 – 20 percent lower than in India.

The attractiveness of the sector is also underscored by the availability of a sizable skilled workforce of finance and accounting professionals. Sri Lanka now has the world’s second largest pool of CIMA trained students and members outside of the UK.

The aggregate pool of students and fully qualified accounting professionals (including technicians) in Sri Lanka is estimated at around 86,000 and 25,000 respectively.

Higher education in accountancy is offered by five main professional accountancy bodies, 15 state universities and numerous foreign affiliated private universities operating in the country.

SLASSCOM acts as the catalyst of growth for the Sri Lankan IT and BPO industry by facilitating trade and business, propagation of education and employment, encouragement of research and innovation, and by supporting the creation of a progressive national policy framework. Follow @SLASSCOM on twitter or visit www.slasscom.lk for more information.