Good governance in the financial sector

I refer to the recent article published in your newspaper under the title ‘Good governance in the financial sector’ by a financial expert and a former director of Commercial Bank. 

Substantial awareness of the need for good governance in the financial sector has been raised over the past six months. However, we must be conscious of the fact that a lot needs to be done.

Although it is heartening to see that the Commercial Bank of Ceylon finally mustered enough courage to get rid of a crony of a previous Government, its Chairman Dheerasinghe, whose appointment during the previous regime which was met by repugnance, continues to remain. 

His appointment was engineered by the former Central Bank Governor with the intention of extending State control over private banks in Sri Lanka. The former Governor also appointed Jayamaha as the Chairperson of HNB but she resigned from her post gracefully early in the year, for which we must commend her. 

Therefore, I urge the shareholders of the bank to continue to fight for good governance by removing the relics of bad governance so that the bank can once again run by men of competence and integrity.

Densil Udayakumar

Colombo 6