Deloitte Sri Lanka hosted CFO Conclave 2026: Leading in the Next Era on 3rd September 2026 at Courtyard by Marriott Colombo, bringing together Chief Financial Officers, senior finance leaders, Deloitte specialists and industry practitioners to share practical perspectives on fraud risk management, financial reporting developments and artificial intelligence (AI) in finance.
Welcoming participants, Thivanka Jayasinghe, Partner, Head – Audit & Assurance, Audit Leader, Deloitte Sri Lanka & Maldives, reflected on the need to consider market developments through the CFO lens. He noted, “The finance leaders of the future will convert insight into action, risk into resilience and innovation into sustainable value.”
The first session, led by Malinda Boyagoda, Partner – Audit and Assurance, Assurance Leader & Industry Leader for Financial Services, Deloitte Sri Lanka and Maldives, focused on corporate fraud risk management through the three pillars of prevention, detection and response. Drawing on the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations, he highlighted that organisations are estimated to lose around 5% of revenue to fraud annually, while 72% of cases in South Asia involved collusion. He also emphasised the importance of stronger controls, including surprise audits, management review, proactive data monitoring and whistleblowing mechanisms, to support earlier detection and reduce losses.
Malinda noted, “Fraud is becoming more digital, and fraud is becoming more sophisticated. Our defence mechanisms must therefore keep pace with these changes. The CFO sits at the epicentre of an organisation’s control and defence mechanisms.”
The discussion then moved to a panel discussion moderated by Thivanka Jayasinghe, comprising Punya De Silva, Former DIG/CID, Director NIB & Head of Interpol, Colombo, and Director/Consultant Investigations, BLACK Watchguard Security & Investigation (Private) Ltd.; Wolantan Karunaratne, Chief Inspector of Police (Rtd.), CID, Justice of the Peace/Whole Island, and Chief Investigating Officer, BLACK Watchguard Security & Investigation (Private) Ltd.; K. V. Karthik, Partner and Leader – Forensic & Financial Crime, Deloitte India, who joined virtually; and Muzawwir Manzeer, Partner, Audit & Assurance, Deloitte Sri Lanka.
The panel explored practical approaches to fraud prevention and detection, including background verification, behavioural warning signs, continuous monitoring and independent verification of sensitive transactions. It also examined AI-enabled risks such as deepfakes, synthetic identities and business email compromise, which are challenging traditional controls.
Within the discussion, Muzawwir Manzeer highlighted the evolving role of internal audit, explaining, “The Institute of Internal Auditors speaks about moving from hindsight to foresight. Previously, internal auditors were expected to identify what had gone wrong. Today, they are increasingly expected to consider what could go wrong.” He also emphasised the need for specialist skills to identify warning signs earlier.
Turning to financial reporting, Dulip Yapa, Partner – Audit & Assurance, Deloitte Sri Lanka, outlined developments relating to SLFRS 9, SLFRS 7 and SLFRS 17, together with upcoming requirements under SLFRS 18 – Presentation and Disclosures in Financial Statements and SLFRS 19 – Subsidiaries without Public Accountability: Disclosures. With SLFRS 18 and SLFRS 19 effective from 1st January 2027, he emphasised early preparation across finance teams and reporting processes.
The final session, The AI Powered CFO, was led by Mayura Malagala, Human Capital Consulting, Engineering AI & Data, and Growth Office Leader, Deloitte Sri Lanka & Maldives. He explored AI applications in forecasting, reconciliations, procurement, and decision support.
A live demonstration illustrated how natural-language queries can help finance leaders analyse performance and investigate variances quickly.
Mayura emphasised the opportunity to embed AI into operations rather than use it only for isolated tasks: “The real benefit of AI does not come from using it just for analysis and for running spot processes. You have to use it as an opportunity to recreate how your operation work and then embed AI into the core of the operation.”
CFO Conclave 2026 underscored an expanding mandate for finance leaders, who will need to strengthen resilience, anticipate risk, prepare for reporting change and use technology intelligently to turn insight into action.