ICRA Lanka exits Sri Lanka

Credit rating agency, ICRA Lanka Limited has decided to cease operations in Sri Lanka, and the company has already informed its clients of the decision as it terminated the rating agreements with clients.  

Although it was immediately not clear why it decided to pull out from Sri Lanka, its Indian parent, ICRA Limited had already settled with the decision months earlier to exit the Sri Lankan operations by November.  

ICRA Lanka was a fully owned subsidiary of ICRA Limited of India which is part of ICRA Group of Companies, which is into independent and professional investment information and credit ratings.  

The ultimate parent company of the international credit rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service is ICRA’s indirect majority shareholder, the company said in its website. 

ICRA Lanka was granted license by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka in May 2011.
ICRA Lanka had a technical agreement with its Indian parent to obtain support on operations and resources while the methodologies used by the company in its ratings were those provided by ICRA India.  

The company also had an economics research arm which made a considerable impact on shaping the country’s economic policy discourse via its periodic reports on macro-economy and research on certain business sectors.
With ICRA’s exit, Sri Lanka’s credit rating agencies are now limited to Fitch Ratings and Lanka Rating Agency.