Road shows to woo Lankans to invest in TBs, bonds

The Central Bank, the regulator of the finance industry together with the participating banks will conduct a series of road shows to attract the Sri Lankan diaspora to invest in Treasury Bills and Bonds.

The Government has decided to open the Rupee denominated Treasury bill and Treasury bond market for the Sri Lankan Diaspora and Migrant Workforce from January 6. The new initiative was announced in the Central Bank ‘Road Map: Monetary and Financial Sector Policies for 2009 and beyond’.

Aravinda Perera Pic: Kavindra Perera

Through this scheme, it is expected to widen the investor base, diversify the Government Securities market, make it more convenient for Sri Lankans living abroad to access Government Securities, and to create a more stable Government securities market.

This scheme will also provide a safe and highly liquid investment opportunity for Sri Lankans living abroad, while providing them with an attractive return on their investments.

This programme initially will be launched in selected regions from January, 2009 onwards. The regions will include the Middle East (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman), Europe (Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands and UK), North America (USA and Canada), Asia (South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, India and Bangladesh). In addition, the programme will cover Australia and New Zealand.

Executive Director/COO Sampath Bank, Aravinda Perera said that they will actively participate in the road shows organized by the CB while the bank will also conduct its own promotions campaign to promote all our products. He said that they have representatives in four countries while there are people who canvass business for the bank.

Perera said that earlier CB permitted foreigners to invest in Treasury Bills and bonds and now the government is of the view that it should be opened to the Sri Lankan diaspora too.

Investments in Treasury bills or Treasury bonds could be channelled through any one of the Joint Lead Managers, using the Treasury bill/bond Investment External Rupee Account-D (TIERA-D) to be opened by the investor for that purpose.

Remittances into and out of TIERA-D accounts would be free from exchange controls. Through this scheme, Sri Lankans living abroad, including: Sri Lankans who have made their permanent residence overseas (Non-residents), citizens of Sri Lanka who have taken up overseas employment or set up business abroad, citizens of Sri Lanka with dual citizenship living in Sri Lanka or abroad, Sri Lankan professionals living in Sri Lanka or abroad who earn income in foreign currency, and banks acting in a fiduciary capacity on behalf of the above categories, would, from now onwards, be permitted to invest in Treasury Bills and Treasury bonds, as well as receive interest, capital gains and maturity proceeds to the credit of any bank account in Sri Lanka or abroad.

Sampath Bank has been appointed as the Joint Lead manager and the bank is very happy that the CB had the trust to appoint us the lead manager, said Perera.

To facilitate this endeavour which is expected to cover almost the entire globe, six joint lead managers, namely, Bank of Ceylon, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, National Savings Bank, NatWealth Securities Ltd., People’s Bank and Sampath Bank have been appointed.