Financial and investment analyst

Location:

Udugampola, WP, Sri Lanka

Posted:

April 12, 2018

Contact this candidate

Resume:

H S Sanjeewa Fernando

Tel: +94-768****** /+94-718******

Email: ***********@*****.***

EXPOSURE IN BRIEF

Exposure as a director/senior official in regulatory, investment, banking and corporate sector.

Experienced in investment management with the largest institutional investment fund in the country.

Expert in restructuring of Pension/provident funds institutions including establishing governance structure, operational processes and investment management department.

Expert in developing and establishing policies frameworks, guidelines and processes in risk management in financial institutions, provident fund institutions, Banks and other private sector corporates.

Expert in risk management in financial institutions and IFRS establishment in banking sector.

Practical experience in corporate management in various industries in Sri Lanka as a director or a senior official.

Experienced in managing and spearheading large projects in the country with national interest in the areas of pension reforms of Sri Lanka.

Experienced in meeting standards and working with leading institutions such as the Central bank, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, World Bank, ILO etc.

Experienced in analyzing and spearheading business acquisitions, business restructuring and conflict resolution.

High level of business negotiation skills and clarity about related legal requirements background in investment, banking and corporate business.

Strong technical skills in business analysis, accountancy and financial analysis.

KEY QUALIFICATIONS

Professional Qualifications

CFA Charter holder - CFA Institute, USA - 2006

Academic Qualifications

Bachelor of Business Management (Accountancy) Special (First Class Honours) Degree from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka - 1998.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Age : 45 years

Nationality : Sri Lankan

Sex : Male

School attended : De Mazenod College, Kandana, Sri Lanka.

Marital status : Married and two children.

Address : No. 224, Pedipala Road, Udugampala, Gampaha, Sri Lanka.

EMPLOYEMENT TRACK RECORD

Former Trainee Fund Manager – EPF Department, Central Bank of Sri Lanka (from April 2000 to October 2001).

Former Fund Manager – EPF Department, Central Bank of Sri Lanka (from November 2001 to October 2006)

Former Relationship Manager – Integrated Risk Management in DFCC (from February 2007 to September 2010)

Former Assistant Vice President – Integrated Risk Management of DFCC Bank (from October 2010 to September 2013)

Former Vice President – Integrated Risk Management Department of DFCC Bank (from October 2013 to 14th December 2015)

Currently Central Bank appointed director to The Standard Credit Finance Ltd. (from January 2016 upto date) (The Standard Credit Finance Ltd is a distressed finance company in Sri Lanka of which the Board of Directors was appointed by Central Bank of Sri Lanka from January 2016)

Former Central Bank appointed Director to Multi Finance Plc (from January 2016 to September 2017). Multi Finance Plc is a quoted finance company in Sri Lanka which went below the required minimum regulatory capital. The Board of Directors was reconstituted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka from January 2016.

Former Director – Acuity Securities Ltd - a primary dealer. (from November 2012 to December 2015)

Former Chairman of the Board Integrated Risk Management Committee of Acuity Securities (for 2015 and established the integrated risk management function in Acuity Securities).

Former Appointed member of the Risk Management Committee of NAMAL (from June 2013 to December 2015. Represented DFCC interest and established the integrated risk management function in NAMAL)

Former Non-executive Director – W M Mendis & Co. Ltd (from April 2016 to Jan 11, 2018). (Executive responsibilities were held for the Rs 5 bn production factory currently being established in Kalcudha, Baticaloa. Project was under my direct supervision until the progress was disturbed in September 2017 due to non-availability of project equity infusion.)

Exposure/contribution in the corporate sector (Apart from banking sector exposure)

Direct supervision of the production factory in Baticaloa for W M Mendis from the planning stage until upto 75% completion. All required regulatory approvals for the project were obtained and established the project with 100% compliance for regulatory and legal requirements. The Position was very critical due to subsequent disturbance to the project and necessary representations were made to the government officials and the institutions to establish the compliance status. Renegotiated the all terms and conditions with the main Indian supplier of the plant including the re-negotiation of scope of work assigned to them and reduced the price also. The change of scope of work to the main supplier and the renegotiation of price enabled Mendis Company to reduce the total project cost from Rs 6.5 bn to Rs 5 bn. Arranged a competent project team with high level of integrity and direct them effectively while sub-delegating but under close scrutiny.

Actively negotiated with acquisition of Singapore and Hong Kong financial operations of an Indian conglomerate. Key structure for operations, acquisition terms and conditions, SPA, valuation and purchase consideration were arranged and supervised with local and foreign lawyers and other stakeholders.

As a non-executive director, operations of W M Mendis company was evaluated in detailed and necessary improvements and recommendations were established in the following areas.

Restructuring of capital structure while reducing the cost of bank borrowings by about 2.5% on average.

Commenced restructuring the capital structure of the company successfully until the external factors hit the group adversely.

Promoted the debt collection effectiveness after evaluating the debtors aging. Few special programmes were established to reduce the legacy debtors portfolio.

Promoted the cash sales while incentivizing the retailers and consignment agents with special discount but in a beneficial manner compared to bank interest cost and surcharge cost for excise dues.

Recognized the areas for cost reduction and promoted the company for the implementation and supervised the actions.

Evaluated the product mix for cost and benefits and certain critical recommendations were introduced to manage the profitability.

Exposure/contribution in the banking sector through DFCC

A.Managed risk management function in both DFCC (a long-term project financing institution) and DFCC Vardhana Bank (DVB) which is a commercial bank.

B.Established overall independent risk management function in both DFCC and DVB (two separate Functions in two banks) which included establishment of organizational structure for risk management function, all risk policies and guidelines, risk limits systems, risk management tools and capacity building.

C.Established the independent credit risk management process, market risk management process and the operational risk management process with necessary guidelines, tools, tasks and limits being introduced in line with the regulatory and Basel II requirements.

D.Staff acquisition, training and development in order to established an effective risk management function in two Banks in an environment where risk management is evolving and staff skills are rare within the local industry.

E.Credit risk rating and scoring models were developed and amended internally which is a highly technical tasks for which the industry commonly hires international consultancy at a considerable cost.

F.Developed all the required risk management policy guidelines and frameworks covering all risk categories such as credit risk, market risk, operational risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk ect.

G.Exposure in establishment of the IFRS for impairment assessment in financial institutions.

H.Exposure in designing certain derivatives products to management certain risk exposures of the Banks. (this is the first derivative in the country of that nature).

I.Established stress testing mechanism for two Banks without external consultancy and trained internal staff for continuous conduct of the stress testing.

J.Was a member of four member team which won the award of the best risk management team in 2011 out of 24 international banks in developing countries in a competition organized by FMO/DEG (Netherland and France development banks)

K.Actively contributed for the overall management and timely management decision making at a primary dealer company while holding a board position at Acuity Securities Ltd.

L.Actively contributed for NAMAL to establish its independent risk management function at the capacity of an appointed member representing DFCC Bank.

Exposure/contribution through the employment in the Central bank of Sri Lanka

1.Handled the corporate debt portfolio of the EPF (total portfolio of Rs 7,000 mn by 2006).

2.Handled the Equity investment analysis of the EPF. The total portfolio amounted to Rs 3,000 mn which spread across about 30 stocks by 2006.

3.Government securities analysis. Assessed the market conditions and the yield curve position and recommend the Investment Committee of the timely strategies for the secondary market trading of the government securities. This task was to facilitate the Investment Committee of the EPF to achieve its investment objective of enhancing the EPF returns through active secondary market trading of government securities. Even the short term aberrations in the yield curve were tracked and recommended the Front Office for trading action.

Involvement key projects with national interest during EPF/CBSL employment

Acting Secretary/EPF representative for the Pension Reforms Task Force established under the Financial Sector Reforms Cluster

Establishment of “Pension Reforms Office (PRO)” in the Ministry of Finance

Establishment of projects development of housing ownership for EPF members

Feasibility Study and recommendations on the proposed pension scheme for the EPF members

Restructuring of the Fund Management Unit of the EPF Department of CBSL

Active member of a team appointed to study EPF and ETF of Sri Lanka

Experience in education and lecturing experience

Recognized lecturer in several leading training institutes, including two national universities, covering many modules in the finance field. Received high rating for evaluations.

A.Centre for Banking Studies (CBS) of Central Bank of Sri Lanka

1.Following programmes and areas were covered in lecturing.

International programme for Risk Management (participants included officers from central banks of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh in addition to local bank and central bank officials.

Credit risk management under Basel II.

Credit rating model development and calibration.

(For above areas, I was a pioneering lecturer in SL banking sector as previously, these programmes were conducted by foreign resource persons or through foreign training, mainly in India. I am the first local resource person in the local market to lecture on credit rating model development process. Because, I am the first risk manager in Sri Lanka to develop credit rating models by training and deploying three young professionals in DFCC Bank. Otherwise, Banks purchased credit rating models from foreign suppliers/consultants mainly from India.)

Portfolio management

Financial derivatives

Fixed income analysis

2.Developed and implemented a special diploma programme in Investment Management for Central Bank Training Centre with a comprehensive scope for a total of 120 hours duration for classroom lecturing.

(This programme was commenced in 2012 and I arranged the overall programme including evaluation parameters. CBSL Training Centre was further facilitated with arranging several best industry practitioners with lecturing capabilities, academic and professional exposures.)

B.Financial Services Academy (FSA) of Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka

1.Former lecturer for Financial Services Academy of Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka in the area of financial derivatives in 2011 and 2012.

2.Developed a comprehensive scope for a module on derivatives analysis for the FSA of Securities and Exchange Commission

3.Developed a multiple choice question bank of 150 questions on fixed income securities. Using this questions bank, papers were developed by FSA to test the learning outcome of the participants of its certification programmes.

C. Bankers’ Institute of Sri Lanka

Former lecturer for bank risk management and investment analysis.

D. Mercury Institute

Lecturer for the CFA students for 4 years upto 2013 on the following modules.

1.Portfolio management

2.Derivative instruments

3.Fixed income securities analysis

C.University of Sri Jayawardenapura

1.Carried out a module for master’s in applied finance programme on risk management in ebanking.

2.Currently conducting the module for the same master’s programme on financial risk management.

D.University of Kelaniya

Two sessions as a visiting lecturer for undergraduates in Finance Department on Bank risk management.

Lecturing/public communication and special tasks under previous my job responsibilities

EPF Department, Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

A.Conducted a comprehensive financial modeling to assess the feasibility of a proposed pension scheme for EPF members. The research study revealed that based on the proposed benefits, the pension scheme will be underfunded within a shorter period and the fund will start depleting after 12 years’ time. This research study involved using life expectancy tables in relating to projected income and outflows.

B.Made presentation about the performance of the EPF for the National Labour Advisory Council which is chaired by the Hon. Minister of Labour and where senior labour officials, labour union preventatives and employers’ representatives the members.

C.Represents have been done for labour union leaders on investment strategy and performance.

D.Presentations have been conducted to the representatives of ILO, IMF, ADB and World Bank on performance, management structure and on-going improvements in EPF.

E.Worked with a foreign consultancy team as the representative from the EPF/Central Bank to study the operational arrangements for EPF and ETF. Thereafter, an amalgamation plan was developed for EPF and ETF.

DFCC Bank as a senior Risk Officer.

A.Conducted comprehensive training/awareness session throughout the Bank for internal staff in all most all levels about new developments in risk management Basel II requirements.

(I was the first staff recruited to the Integrated Risk Management Department of DFCC when it was commenced in 2007. My career in the Risk Management Department was commenced by bringing awareness throughout the Bank at all levels of staff on need of a risk management perspective in the bank to ensure sustainable operations, avoid losses and meet regulatory requirements. I conducted 18 training programs at Head Office and regional officers covering all levels of staff. Through these session, I could gradually inculcate the active involvement of the risk management function within other operations. This action is very critical for any bank as other functions tend to avoid risk management function perceiving as a controlling function which disturbs the business.)

B.Development of first credit rating modelers in the local banking sector.

(Recruited three young professionals in two universities with statistics specialization to DFCC. Trained them and guided them to become the first credit rating model developer in the local banking sector. The scientific method of developing credit rating models were previously hired from foreign consultants. There was no development of credit rating models in the local banks as it was a highly technical process which involve bank lending knowledge, finance knowledge and statistics knowledge. I believe this trend now will continue in the local banking sector).

C.Developed credit rating models for the first time in a local bank using its internal capacities.

(Banks tend to purchase credit rating models from foreign consultants on risk management. This is a costly affair both development and annual model adjustments are required based on actual performance of the models. There are few models n one bank based on lending portfolio categories e.g. corporate loans, SME loans, retail loans, personal loans etc.

The development and annual adjustment go through scientific process and this process is subject for review and acceptance by the banking regulator also. Statistical part of the credit rating models will use best method out of neural networks, probit & logit modeling or expert judgment for hypothesis testing to select the discriminatory parameters and the discriminatory levels. Through this task, tens of millions of money could be saved for the bank on annual basis.

The most important matter is that breaking the dependency on foreign consultancy for this technical task. My knowledge in this area was shared with other banks also through the training programme that I conducted at the Central Bank training Centre).

D.Establishment of the IFRS for impairment assessment in financial institutions.

(Although establishment of impairment assessment method is a task of Finance Department of a Bank, I developed and advice on the impairment assessment method for DFCC and DFCC Vardhana Bank from the Risk Management department due to the availability of historical data already in the risks management department and convergence of impairment discussed in IFRS and expected loss and unexpected loss discussed in risk management. This involved analysis of 5 years historical data for different lending portfolios.)

Project report preparation and writing skills

Preparation of project and evaluation analyses and reports in the areas such as Pension reforms in Sri Lanka.