Amarasuriya and Wanasinghe must depart

All credit to Daily FT on your headline news item in of 15 Dec ‘Extra life for old directors in banks’. Your analysis was spot on and the action obviously moved to ensure continuity of Commercial Bank Chairman Amarasuriya even though many other retiring directors would now try to stay on.

This would of course be a defeat for the good governance campaigners of this country who hailed the nine year limit and the 70 years of age rule introduced by Central Bank.

It is all the more surprising that K. Vignarajah who always fights for good causes has put his foot into a trap by trying to fight a wrong cause. He seems to have forgotten that banks are governed by a different set of Central Bank rules since it is they who have to come to the rescue of depositors when directors get the bank into trouble through their capricious and selfish actions.

Lalith Kotalawala’s and N.U. Jayawardena’s actions at Seylan and Sampath are still fresh in our minds. Both acted like sole proprietors of these banks and did what they wanted, unchallenged by any other director, most of who were anyway their cronies or family members.

If not for the powers of the Banking Act, Seylan depositors would have been ruined. All credit to Central Bank for stepping in at that moment and stemming a possible collapse of the entire banking sector of Sri Lanka.

It would of course be surprising if Amarasuriya would now like to join ranks of Kotalawala and NU to further extend his stay, piggybacking on Vignarajah.

Already the Commercial Bank Board has been referred to as an elders’ home by some of us who regularly attend bank AGMs and EGMs. We were all looking forward to seeing their backs and getting a younger set of directors.

We earnestly call on Amarasuriya to depart with his colleague Wanasinghe, who has to be usually helped even to get into the head table at an AGM. That would be their best gift to CBC after the very long innings of nearly 25 years, much beyond the permitted nine.

It will also be very much the duty of the remaining Commercial Bank Directors to call on their two ageing colleagues to step down gracefully without compromising the bank with the Central Bank any more.

When much more capable and younger directors of the calibre of Nihal Fonseka resigned on this rule, there is no reason at all for Amarasuriya and Wanasinghe to continue!



Anura Gunawardena