A STUDY OF THE SURVIVAL OF SPECIALIZED LEASING COMPANIES IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Leasing industry in Sri Lanka commenced its operation during 1977 under the open economic policy. Initially the industry consists of three specialized leasing companies. The demand for leasing as a medium term source of finance was increased with the economic development of the country. today 76 lending institutions have registered with Central Bank to offer the same product to establish , medium and small scale customers. The leasing industry will depend on four pillars such as regulator, legal aspects, tax aspects and financial accounting & depreciation policy. The cost of funds of said 76 lending Institutions are at different levels and competing with each other to hold their market share. The methodology that used in the study are survey based study to gather information from customers and managers through questionnaires and interview based study to get the views of regulator of the industry .The cross sectional study has been done on various layers of parties involved in the industry such as customers ,managers, Chief Executive Officers, and Director of non bank supervision of Central Bank of Sri Lanka to find the factors such as depreciation policy of leasing product, amendment to the leasing act ,cost of funds of SLC , NPA level, profitability, EPS and ROE have an impact on survival of SLC’s.

Keywords: Specialised Leasing Companies (SLC), Registered Finance Companies (RFC), Licensed Commercial Banks (LCB), Licensed Savings Banks (LSB), Facilitator, Lessee, Lessor, Regulator, Legal Aspects, Tax Aspects, Financial Aspects, Cost of Funds (COF), Average Prime Lending Rate (AWPLR), Net percent value, Nonperforming assets, Profitability, Earning Per share (EPS), Return on Equity (ROE) and Depreciation, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk