Country Manual Private Banking
Sri Lanka – Update 2024
BRP has updated its Country Manual Private Banking for Sri Lanka out of Bank’s Country of Establishment (DEF, RS, BT & RT)
| Source of changes | Answers |
|---|---|
| Law / Regulation | No |
| New Position of the Authorities | No |
| Evolution of Expert’s Interpretation | Yes |
Regulatory Template, Regulatory Summary and Behaviour Template
Material changes
Some time has now passed since the introduction of the revised Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka Act No. 19 of 2021. As part of this year’s review, an in-depth analysis of the current interpretation and practice of the supervisory authorities was performed with our external lawyers, particularly in view of the considerable informal rules for services that are not explicitly regulated in a cross-border setting. As part of this review, the former informal view that up to four visits by a foreign bank’s representatives per year were tolerated practice could no longer be confirmed. In general, onsite activities are viewed more critically than before, which is reflected in the updated Country Manual PB Sri Lanka.
We would like to take this opportunity to remind foreign banks that, in addition to financial regulation, foreign exchange restrictions make business relationships with Sri Lankan clients difficult or de facto even impossible.
Non-material changes
Some comments have been slightly reworded (without introducing material changes) to reflect the regulatory situation/current interpretation of the regulatory framework more accurately.
Implications for business relations with third parties
The documents having been reformatted onto the latest template, this section now provides for more answers, better distinguishing between the provision of documentation to an EAM for its own use and provision of documentation for subsequent distribution to end-clients.
BT Short Comparison
BRP has created a comparison document allowing users to quickly identify the modifications made compared to the previous version of the PB Manual (BT Short Comparison). The BT Short Comparison can be found on BRP’s platform (mybrponline) in the Search tab by entering in the Document Field “CM PB BT SHORT COMP” and “SRI LANKA” in the Target Country Field.
The BT Short Comparison should be read as follows:
The first column contains a short description of the activity in question. The second column contains the answers of the previous version of the Country Manual (online until the day of the alert). The third column contains the new answers of the most recent version of the Country Manual. Only the modified answers are displayed (in color). If the answers in the new version are unchanged compared to the previous version, they are shaded in grey.
For more information, please contact us: info@brpsa.com
Geneva, September 27th, 2024