# Fintech Association of Sri Lanka

FinTech Association of Sri Lanka (FASL) is an independent, not-for-profit cross-industry organisation representing Sri Lankan and the global FinTech community to support the development, innovation and investment in the FinTech sector.
FASL is closely collaborating with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) on fintech-related issues; and a number of fintech events related to FASL were represented by CBSL.

## History

Establishing ‘Fintech Association of Sri Lanka’ was initiated at the ‘Fintech Meetup’ of the ‘Asia-Pacific Executives Forum’ which was held at Hilton Colombo in 2018; where the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Assistant Governor also participated and delivered a speech on regulatory role of Central Bank on Fintech.

## Governance

FASL is governed by an executive committee that consists of a president, vice president, general secretary and other committee members. The executive committee is advised by an advisory board consisting of industry experts.

## Collaborations

* FASL is an MoU-signed partner of the Fintech Associations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. and ASEAN Financial Innovation Network.
* FASL was a community partner, supporter institution or regional co-organiser for various fintech summits in the region including Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Mumbai, Dubai, Colombo including Singapore FinTech Festival, Hong Kong FinTech Week and Asia Smart App Awards.
* FASL is an ecosystem partner of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Innovation Hub and Elevandi, an independent organisation created by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
* FASL partnered a fintech seminar, hosted by The University of Hong Kong.
* FASL organised regular Fintech workshops (based on HKU FinTech of The University of Hong Kong) at Hilton Colombo.
* FASL organised ‘Lithuanian fintech meetup’ in Colombo in collaboration with the Lithuanian Embassy in New Delhi and HatchX, a fintech accelerator in Sri Lanka.
* FASL has launched an initiative to draft a report titled, ‘Enhancing Colombo International Financial City (Port City Colombo) as a Leading Fintech Hub in South Asia’ to submit to the President of Sri Lanka; the initiative is being assisted by a number of fintech experts globally and Professor Douglas Arner, Kerry Holdings Professor in Law at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as the chief consultant. An interim report was released in July, 2024 where it's highlighted the initiative would support establishing a 'Fintech Innovation Hub' in the Colombo International Financial Centre (CIFC) and it could become a strategic hub in the South Asian region by attracting diverse multimillion-dollar investments; and the hub could function facilitating innovation, partnerships and global expansion for South Asian fintech startups in collaboration with Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Innovation Hub and Singapore fintech ecosystem.
* FASL organised a lecture on ‘Introduction to Artificial Intelligence’ at Little Flower Convent, Karampon, Jaffna with the resource support from HKU FINTECH (of the University of Hong Kong) and ELEVANDI, an independent organisation created by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). FASL’s lecture was in view of the Ministry of Education (Sri Lanka) in March, 2024 announcing integrating AI and Machine Learning (ML) into Sri Lanka’s National School Curriculum; the initiative was planned to be rolled out to twenty schools initially representing at least one school from each of the nine provinces to serve as a benchmark for scalability across the country.