Priyantha Talwatte gives notice; Hemantha new NTB CEO from April

Nations Trust Bank said yesterday Priyantha Talwatte has tendered his resignation from the post of Director and CEO with effect from 3 April.

“This resignation is in keeping with the Bank›s already established succession plan for the post of Director/Chief Executive Officer which was approved by the Board at the time of the appointment of Talwatte,” NTB said in a filing to the Colombo Stock Exchange.

It said in keeping with the succession plan and subject to approval by the Central Bank, the current Deputy CEO (for the past two years) Hemantha Gunatilleke, is expected to take over as Director/CEO.

Priyantha was appointed to the Board on 19 June 2020 as Executive Director and CEO. Prior to that he held several positions at NTB including Deputy CEO, Senior Executive Vice President Consumer Banking, Deputy General Manager Consumer Banking, Deputy General Manager Cards and Strategic Marketing, Head of American Express Cards and Head of Marketing. Talwatte was well known for his pivotal role in contracting and launching the American Express franchise in Sri Lanka and developing a best in class credit card issuing and acquiring business for the Bank to become the leading credit card issuer and acquirer in the local market.

Hemantha is a dynamic Corporate Banking specialist with extensive international experience in Commercial Lending, Relationship Management, Product Management, Trade and Structured Trade Finance with a proven record in business leadership. He has been with NTB for the past six years and prior to that at HSBC for 16 years.