FM & CB Governor, You Are Accountable For Your Unwise & Unacceptable Actions

By Chandra Jayaratne –February 12, 2016

Chandra Jayaratne

An Open Letter to the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank; to be duly noted by the President, the Prime Minister, the Government, Commercial & Financial Services Sectors and Professional Practitioners

Dear Minister and Governor,

You are Accountable for Your Unwise and Unacceptable Actions and Inactions

Transparency International Sri Lanka and many professionals in Civil Society, (including much respected retired Senior Central Bankers), have sounded “Amber Light” signals, warning you of your unwise and unacceptable actions and inactions, in connection with the open public call made by the Minister of Finance with the apparent concurrence of the Governor of the Central Bank,requesting investors to “park” foreign currency deposits in Sri Lanka, as “special deposits”, on “no questions asked” basis, with “no locked in investment period”.

The Minister has in fact boasted, a few weeks ago, of the success of the scheme, with an unnamed Belgian investor, working in partnership with a Sri Lankan, having agreed and partly funded, the ‘parking of one billion US Dollars in Sri Lanka’. He has also proudly announced this achievement as a due endorsement of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government.

At the time of this first announcement, connected bank officials had informed the media that the remittances have topped USD 1.5 billion; and as the remitting banks overseas would already have cleared the customer and due diligence performed, there was no real need for “Know Your Customer” (KYC) validations at the receiving end bank. However, the media had later quoted the Central Bank chief as having confirmed that, commercial banks will continue to accept foreign inflows under mandatory international monetary regulations to know the source of funds.                                                          Read More