Understanding the nature of mortgages and the requirements for a proper detailed evaluation certainly necessitates a financial assessment to ensure authenticity.

Global CEO Magazine connects with Mr Karl Wilkinson, the Chief Executive of Access Financial Services, United Kingdom.

Q: Why has Access Financial Services chosen Sri Lanka, specifically Colombo, as the location for its operational head office for mortgage processing?
That’s a really good question. Thank you for asking me that. It’s quite a long story, but I’ll try to shorten it as much as I can. At Access Financial Services, since 2017, we’ve always had the vision of moving some of our mortgage processing abroad. One of the reasons for doing that is to offer a better quality of service to our customers in the UK.
About four years ago, we started looking at different countries for potential outsourcing, and it turned out that Sri Lanka was an excellent choice for several reasons. One of the main reasons is the education system in Sri Lanka, which is very similar to the UK system. This similarity ensures a high quality of personnel.
To be honest, it’s a very good country for me to consider. It’s not too far from the UK, and I personally enjoy being in Sri Lanka.

Q: What factors influenced the decision to establish a joint venture with WIS Group in Sri Lanka? And how does this partnership benefit Access Financial Services?
Thank you. I’ve known WIS for quite a number of years. We’ve had a very good relationship since roughly 2016 or 2017, and I’ve seen WIS grow very successfully over those years. We’ve maintained contact throughout that time, and the benefits of partnering with WIS include their local knowledge and connections within Colombo.
There’s a lot of synergy between Access and WIS. I’ve observed the quality of the employees they bring on board and how well they train and look after them. For me, it was a perfect fit to help Access grow and to work together with WIS. Between us, we can develop a very successful growth strategy over the coming years.

Q: Could you elaborate on the tax advantages offered by the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act and how they influence the decision to incorporate there?
The most important thing for Access is actually giving the best quality of service to customers in the UK. Now, with this Act coming into play, it means that it will benefit me because there are tax advantages to recruiting people in Sri Lanka.
So employees can be paid in Sterling, and then there’s less tax for that employee to pay, which means that from a purely selfish perspective, I can actually afford to pay a better quality of employee who will enjoy the benefits of being paid in pound sterling with less tax to pay. This way, they can have a better quality of life, which in turn means they will have greater enjoyment working at Access. This will then be reflected in how they communicate with customers in the UK, creating a positive cycle that helps Access grow. The more Access grows, the more people I can employ in Colombo and Sri Lanka. So it’s a positively growing circle, and what’s happening in Sri Lanka at the moment is really beneficial to Access and my plans for the future.

Q: What challenges or opportunities do you foresee in setting up and managing operations in Sri Lanka compared to the UK?
Well, the obvious challenge for me is clearly distance. Recruiting in the UK allows for quick interviews and onboarding. Obviously, there’s a distance issue when we’re trying to recruit in Sri Lanka. However, since COVID, we’ve managed to recruit our current UK head office staff from all over the UK, operating remotely for the past three to four years. We’ve perfected remote training, meetings, and onboarding.
In working with WIS, we’ve replicated this model in Sri Lanka. We’ve transferred our training materials and worked closely with WIS to recruit, onboard, and train high-quality employees.

Q: How will the projected growth in mortgage approvals impact the operations and staffing of Access Financial Services in Sri Lanka over the next few years?
The UK economy is improving at the moment. Mortgage approvals, which were slow even 12 months ago, have seen a significant improvement recently. There have also been new lenders entering the market. Access is working on several confidential initiatives, and we anticipate needing about 150 new employees in Colombo over the next 12 months. We’re looking at massive growth for Access, with many initiatives in the UK supporting this expansion. Operations in Sri Lanka are vital for our successful growth.

Q: How does Access Financial Services plan to recruit and train the necessary staff in Sri Lanka to meet the anticipated volume of mortgage cases efficiently?
That’s a really good question. One reason for our strategic partnership with WIS is their expertise in training and recruitment. We have key people in the UK, including heads of compliance for Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation and experienced trainers. Our strategy includes periodically bringing these experts to Sri Lanka to train the new team extensively.

We aim to get some Sri Lankan employees qualified to the level of Certificate in Mortgage Advice & Practice (CeMAP). We can achieve this with our UK trainers and the Pearson centres in Sri Lanka, ensuring our new employees are FCA-qualified.

Q: What role does technology play in supporting the mortgage processing operations in Sri Lanka and how will Access Financial Services ensure seamless integration with the UK operations?
Technology is the future of financial services. AI has played a significant role in recent advancements. About 18 months ago, Access Financial Services formed a technology company called Access Technology Solutions. We have been developing proprietary software that will be unique to the market upon its official launch next year. I hope to discuss this more next year.

Our technology will connect not just Sri Lanka and the UK but hopefully the whole world. This has been our vision for the past five or six years, and the technology is now about 12 months away from completion.

Additionally, we are launching a new CRM in the next month to six weeks. This CRM will help connect our customers with both our UK and Sri Lanka teams, ensuring seamless integration.

Q: What are the key milestones or objectives that Access Financial Services aims to achieve through this joint venture in Sri Lanka?
So, growth is key. We’ve had plans to grow Access over the next five years. Our aim is to float. We have fixed projections to take us up to the end of 2025, and to get there, we’ve targeted 150 new employees in Sri Lanka. Now, the vision from 2025 onwards is all based around the brand-new tech that’s coming to the market. In a worst-case scenario, we would potentially have 250 to 300 employees, but in a best-case scenario, it would be a lot more than that. There’s a lot happening within the Access space, and there’s a lot that we’re working on with WIS as well. So these are really, really exciting times. Access Financial Services aims to broaden its business perspectives with a strategic plan indeed.
We were in conversation with Mr. Karl Wilkinson, who is the Chief Executive of Access Financial Services. Thank you so much for connecting.