Chandula appointed Special Advisor on Financial Inclusion to Asian Bankers Association

Asian Bankers Association has appointed Chandula Abeywickrema, the Chairman of Banking With The Poor Network (BWTP- Asia), an Asian expert on financial inclusion, as its Special Advisor on Financial Inclusion. 

The Asian Bankers Association is the largest Asian Commercial Bank network consisting of 100 leading banks spread over 25 Asia-Pacific countries.

ABA is set up as the Asian bank network in 1981 to provide venue for exchange of views and information on banking opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region, to facilitate the meeting of bankers in region, to encourage joint activities that would enhance the role of its members in servicing the financial needs of their respective economies and in promoting regional development and to undertake projects that will encourage trade, investment and industrial corporation in Asia-Pacific region. 

Asian Bankers Association over the last decades made significant commitment to aligning its members toward greater financial inclusion by creating a Policy Advocacy Committee exclusively Financial Inclusion. ABA then invited Abeywickrema who headed the Hatton National Bank’s (HNB) Retail and Development banking as its Deputy General Manager over two decades to be the team leader for the financial inclusion committee. 

During his term of this position as the team leader Abeywickrema has written numerous position papers on wider area of financial inclusion for ABA which has earned praise and recognition from its member banks. This appointment in recognition of his expertise in financial inclusion in Asia and great contribution he has made to the mandate of ABA commitment to financial inclusion. Abeywickrema, with over 30 years of banking and finance industry in Sri Lanka and Asia, currently serves as the Managing Director/CEO of CCC Solution, the project management subsidiary of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. He serves on boards of boards of financial institutions that advocate financial inclusion.