Transfer the money
This challenge took about 2 months: two attempts involving in-person visits to Freedom in Almaty and Aktau, attempts to transfer dollars and yuan, talks with Turkey's Ziraat bank and Israel's Hapoalim, and I went round every foreign bank in Russia.
What's the difficulty
For any investment by a foreigner in Sri Lanka, the law requires an Inward Investment Account. I'm putting money into the company as a loan, which also counts as an investment. The money has to land in the IIA account specifically as an incoming transfer from abroad, with official confirmation from the bank of who sent it. Not cash, not a local transfer within the country, not a payment through a third party - but a traceable foreign payment.
The point of IIA accounts for Sri Lanka is to make sure foreign investment really is foreign, and not locals investing through other countries, the way it was in Russia, where 70% of foreign investment came from Russian-owned Cypriot companies. An IIA is also required to buy property. Without an IIA the deal simply won't be registered, and if you somehow manage to sign a deal without a confirmed full inward remittance, the deal is considered void. In other words, in theory you can even buy land or an apartment, and in the eyes of the law it's as if you never bought it.
Of course this complicates the investment process, but on the plus side Sri Lanka has proper ownership of property. In most resort destinations where foreigners are buying up property - Bali, Phuket - a foreigner can't own land at all; at most you get a long lease of 30+ years with an extension that depends on the goodwill of the local owner or the state. So in reality you're not an owner but a long-term tenant with a nice presentation. Sri Lanka is different: a foreigner can register an apartment as actual property - it's their asset, not a right of use for some number of years.
I opened an IIA account — the formalities took a couple of days and can be done remotely. But getting money into it turned out to be a quest of its own.
I tried a lot of things, and in the end only one route worked: I opened a brokerage account with a broker in Armenia, and it was through that, not directly, that the money reached the IIA account in Sri Lanka.
The two most important things to watch when transferring money:
1. The conversion rate: it can be more than 5% off the central bank rate, or it can even be below the central bank rate
2. Fees for the transfer, for conversion and for account maintenance
Although sometimes time and nerves are worth far more😉
If you're from Russia and think, “I've got a foreign currency account, say, at a Kazakh bank, I'll just send it straight by bank details” through the bank that issued you an international card, it definitely won't work. Crypto is out too, and a transfer on behalf of a third party is a miss as well - banks don't accept any of that.
If you know of options that work, write to me, I'll give them a try too
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What's the difficulty
For any investment by a foreigner in Sri Lanka, the law requires an Inward Investment Account. I'm putting money into the company as a loan, which also counts as an investment. The money has to land in the IIA account specifically as an incoming transfer from abroad, with official confirmation from the bank of who sent it. Not cash, not a local transfer within the country, not a payment through a third party - but a traceable foreign payment.
The point of IIA accounts for Sri Lanka is to make sure foreign investment really is foreign, and not locals investing through other countries, the way it was in Russia, where 70% of foreign investment came from Russian-owned Cypriot companies. An IIA is also required to buy property. Without an IIA the deal simply won't be registered, and if you somehow manage to sign a deal without a confirmed full inward remittance, the deal is considered void. In other words, in theory you can even buy land or an apartment, and in the eyes of the law it's as if you never bought it.
Of course this complicates the investment process, but on the plus side Sri Lanka has proper ownership of property. In most resort destinations where foreigners are buying up property - Bali, Phuket - a foreigner can't own land at all; at most you get a long lease of 30+ years with an extension that depends on the goodwill of the local owner or the state. So in reality you're not an owner but a long-term tenant with a nice presentation. Sri Lanka is different: a foreigner can register an apartment as actual property - it's their asset, not a right of use for some number of years.
I opened an IIA account — the formalities took a couple of days and can be done remotely. But getting money into it turned out to be a quest of its own.
I tried a lot of things, and in the end only one route worked: I opened a brokerage account with a broker in Armenia, and it was through that, not directly, that the money reached the IIA account in Sri Lanka.
The two most important things to watch when transferring money:
1. The conversion rate: it can be more than 5% off the central bank rate, or it can even be below the central bank rate
2. Fees for the transfer, for conversion and for account maintenance
Although sometimes time and nerves are worth far more😉
If you're from Russia and think, “I've got a foreign currency account, say, at a Kazakh bank, I'll just send it straight by bank details” through the bank that issued you an international card, it definitely won't work. Crypto is out too, and a transfer on behalf of a third party is a miss as well - banks don't accept any of that.
If you know of options that work, write to me, I'll give them a try too