SEC issues first ever list of approved firms for statutory audits of listed companies

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued an approved list of firms to conduct statutory audits of listed companies from financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2024 except companies listed on the Empower Board.

The 10 firms are Ernst & Young, Sri Lanka, KPMG Sri Lanka, PricewaterhouseCoopers Sri Lanka, BDO Partners, Deloitte Sri Lanka (SJMS Associates), B.R. De Silva and Company, Kreston MNS and Co., Baker Tilly Edirisinghe and Company, Jayasinghe and Company and Wijeyeratne and Company.

SEC said the following assessment criteria were considered in developing the above list. Number of partners who engage in the Statutory Audits of public listed companies; availability of professionally qualified persons within the audit staff; availability of information technology infrastructure to conduct statutory audit engagements and the readiness to apply Sri Lanka Standards on Quality Management 1 and 2 (SLSQM 1 and 2).

The list of approved auditors and the assessment criteria will be revisited once in every three years.

Sri Lanka has around 80 audit firms as per Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board.