Trade Finance Association of Bankers elects new Council for 2011/2012

THE Trade Finance Association of Bankers at its 14th Annual General Meeting held recently elected its new Council for the year 2011/2012.

The Trade Finance Association of Bankers has from its inception been actively engaged in imparting knowledge and the necessary skills to its members by conducting seminars, lectures, discussions, workshops, etc.

, on a wide range of topics relating to International Trade. Educating the Sri Lankan importers and exporters is also an objective of the association in order to assist them to keep abreast of the changes that are taking place in the Industry.

The membership comprises almost all commercial banks operating in Sri Lanka. A number of senior bankers play a major role in conducting its activities towards the achievement of the goals and objectives of the Association.

N.U. Jumat, Assistant General Manager – Trade Services at Hatton National Bank PLC was elected as the new President and Jayantha Newunhella, Assistant General Manager – Trade Services, People’s Bank as Senior Vice President.

Other Office Bearers include:

Vice President –Ranjith Haputhanthri, Assistant General Manager – Overseas Branches, Bank of Ceylon, Secretary General – Manjula Gunawardana, Manager – Trade Finance, National Development Bank PLC, Assistant Secretary –Roshan Fernando, Manager – Exports, HSBC, Treasurer – Manoji Hettigoda, Senior Executive – Trade Services, Sampath Bank PLC, Assistant Treasurer, Susantha Fernando – Manager – Imports, Seylan Bank.

The following were elected as council members:

• Gaya Manamperi, formerly at Sampath Bank PLC
• Thushy David – Deutsche Bank AG
• Indika Samarasekara – Sampath Bank PLC
• Nihal Premasiri – People’s Bank
• Navamali De Silva – Nations Trust Bank PLC
• Senaka De Silva – National Development Bank PLC
• Himath Kithsiri – HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Lanka) Pvt Ltd.
• Lawrian Somanader – Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC
• Shantha Gunasekara – Standard Chartered Bank Limited
• Rishard Amir – Pan Asia Banking Corporation PLC
• Neil Handapangoda – Citibank NA
• Waruna Senanayake – DFCC Vardhana Bank
• Shyam De Silva – Hatton National Bank PLC
• Jumat succeeds M.K. Nandasiri – Deputy General Manager – Support Services, Bank of Ceylon, Immediate Past President of the Trade Finance Association of Bankers.

Jumat was previously the Senior Vice President of the Association and also Secretary General of the association for the years 2007/2008.

Presently he is the Assistant General Manager – Trade Services of Hatton National Bank Plc. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka with a banking career spanning over 33 years in International Trade and has also done a stint overseas by working for Saudi British Bank (HSBC Group) as Manager – Trade Services for a period of 11 years. He is also a member of the Governing Board of the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka.

The new President in his welcome address mentioned that the Trade Finance Association of Bankers had been recognised by the community as a valuable provider of knowledge, expertise and updated information relating to the global activity of international trade.

He said that he had taken this new position with much confidence due to the undoubted support that will be given by the new council, most of who have been in the council for a considerable period of time and the very valuable guidance that would be given by the Advisory Committee comprising of three founder members of the association, A. Kathiravelupillai, Parama Dharmawardena and Earnest Gunasekera, who have continued to extend their invaluable services to the association since its inception.