Sixty percent people clueless about banking - HNB CEO

Sixty percent of the population do not enjoy banking facilities in Sri Lanka, said the Chairman, Asian Bankers Association and Managing Director/CEO Hatton National Bank PLC, Rajendra Theagarajah.

He said that the 28th general meeting and conference of the Asian Bankers Association (ABA) themed "Asia taking the lead in the Global economy: A Banker's perspective" will be held in Colombo, for the first time at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel from October 3 - 4.

Deputy GM Marketing and Retail Banking HNB PLC,Chandula Abeywickrema, Chairman ABA and MD /CEO, HNB PLC,Rajendra Theagarajah and Chairman Policy Advocacy, ABA and DGM,Risk and Credit Quality,HNB PLC, Dilshan Rodrigo pic: by Susantha Wijegunasekera

It is hosted by the Hatton National Bank. The main objectives of this forum will be to explore and understand the responsibilities of Asia in the global economy and how Asia will have to play a leading role in the future, to exchange ideas covering the challenges and opportunities facing Asian bankers in their emergence as global market players and to provide a forum for Asian banks to discuss international regulatory standards and the way forward.

Around 250-300 delegates of the leading banks and bank regulators from around the Asia-Pacific region such as Qatar, Australia, Oman, Philippines, Uzbekistan are expected to gather in Colombo for the conference.

The conference sessions will include fundamentals of Asian banking, the China-India equation, Asia's contribution to sustainable banking which will be conducted by experts from the banking sector, academia and the government.

In addition there will be a panel of CEOs from the banking and non-banking sectors who will discuss their perspectives on issues of current interest to the banking and finance sector as well as the business community, CEO forum. As a special feature of this year's conference a session, "Discover ABA" will be held on the first day of the forum.

The session will be conducted by three banks from the ABA member countries namely, Mongolia, Philippines and Taiwan as well as by HNB while country presentations will provide the delegates the opportunity to obtain more information about the market conditions of those countries. Central Bank Governor, Ajith Nivard Cabraal will deliver a talk while the keynote speaker will be an investment banker from the USA.

The presentations will cover areas such as ABA member bank profile, country references (demographics,culture,GDP per capita), Overview of financial and banking systems, International trade and foreign investment policy (fiscal and regulatory framework), issues of policy advocacy.

"With this year's conference we hope to bring together financial regulators and senior representatives of ABA member banks operating in the Asian region. He said that discussions will not be of commercial interest to the participants but will also be useful to the association in its efforts to help shape policies that affect our region's development." said Chairman, policy advocacy of Asian Banker's Association, Deputy General Manager, Risk and Credit Quality Hatton National Bank PLC, Dilshan Rodrigo.

The principal sponsors for this year's forum are Dialog Axiata PLC, Epic Lanka Group and Smart Media.