Ex-CB Assistant Governor joins Seylan Bank Board

Seylan Bank PLC has announced the appointment of D.M. Rupasinghe as an Independent Director on its Board with effect from 1 October.

Rupasinghe was the former Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Central Bank) and Head/Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit of Sri Lanka ((FIU-Sri Lanka) of the Central Bank.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (Honours) Degree from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and a Master of Economics from the Colorado State University-Fort Collins in the US. He has also completed several postgraduate assignments/training at Harvard University, Western Australia University and National University of Singapore.

Rupasinghe retired from Central Bank in September 2020 after many years of distinguished service, having held many senior positions, which included the position of Additional Director of the FIU Sri Lanka, Superintendent of the Public Debt Department, Controller of Exchange, as a Senior Economist in the Economic Research Department and as Director of many important divisions/departments of the Central Bank.

He also has exposure in the Government sector as well as the private sector, having served at some of the Government and private sector institutions.

Rupasinghe is a recognised expert in finance/economics and in particular, in the areas of anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT).

He has also held many important different positions at various important committees and institutions in Sri Lanka during his career, including as a member of the Special Presidential Task Force on Recovery of State Assets of Government of Sri Lanka, a member of the Board and the Audit Committee of the Gem and Jewellery Authority of Sri Lanka, Working Group member on International Trade Facilitation at the WTO and Sri Lanka Customs among others.

Rupasinghe was the Country Researcher for Research Projects on ‘Socio-economic Impacts of Hydro-Meteorological Disasters’, UN-ESCAP- Thailand and ‘The impact and Policy Response of Oil Price Shocks in Sri Lanka’ SEACEN Centre, Malaysia. 

He also worked closely with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the regional FATF Secretariats in particular with Asia Pacific Group of Money Laundering (APG) for over a decade and served as a Co-chair of Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and its Governing Committee Member thereafter. He also served as Egmont Group (of Financial Intelligence Units) Governance Committee Member and Asia Pacific Regional Representative until his retirement from the Central Bank in 2020.

Major shareholders of Seylan are Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (15%), Brown and Company (13%), EPF (9.5%), Dhammika Perera (9.36%), LOLC Investments (8.7%), BOC (5.6%), Seylan Employees Gratuity Trust Fund (5%) Don and Don Holdings (3.6%), and ETF (2%).

The Board of Seylan Bank comprises Ravi Dias (Chairman), Kapila Jayawardena (Deputy Chairman), Kapila Ariyaratane (Director/CEO), P.L.S.K. Perera, M.C. Pietersz, S.V. Corea, A.S. Wijesinha, S.K. Salgado, D.M.D.K. Thilakaratne, D.R. Abeysuriya, D.M. Rupasinghe and V.G.S.S. Kotakadeniya (alternate to Jayawardena).