Central Bank takes over management of ETIF, SFS to allow directors to finalise $ 75m investment 

The Central Bank yesterday moved to stabilise the speculative environment recently created by various media reports and to support depositors of both ETI Finance (ETIF) and Swarnamahal Financial Services Plc (SFS) and allow negotiations with potential investors to be carried out in a professional manner. 

Depositors will continue to be serviced vis-à-vis their interest payments as normal, but premature withdrawals have been halted temporarily. Deposit maturity dates also have been extended by six months as a purely stabilising measure in the interim period of final negotiations with investors. 

Under the proposed investment proposals, ETIF will benefit with a cash infusion in excess of Rs. 11 billion with all its subsidiaries receiving a further cash infusion of around Rs. 4 billion.

This will be one of the largest investments into the country’s non-banking financial sector. 

Under this directive the CBSL non-banking division will manage the operations of both finance companies of the group, with the assistance of the existing management teams, whilst the directors will concentrate on finalising the new investment proposal. Analysts expect this directive to be removed in a few months once the cash infusion is completed.