The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has established an Advisory Committee to examine possible revival options for failed finance companies. 

The Committee comprises four (04) eminent experts from the business sector and is chaired by Mr. Dharma Dheerasinghe, Chairman of CBC Finance Ltd., former Chairman of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The other members are Mr. Sujeewa Mudalige, Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers; Mr. Tishan Subasinghe, Managing Director of Moore Stephens Consulting (Pvt) Ltd.; and Mr. Thiyagarajah Dharmarajah, Senior Partner (Audit & Assurance) of Amerasekera & Company, Chartered Accountants.

The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) wishes to express strong displeasure on the recent assessment by Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) that led to the rating action, after being placed under review for downgrade three months ago in a similar fashion. Once again, Moody’s irrational rating action with regard to Sri Lanka comes a few days before a key event, namely the announcement of the Government Budget for 2022, and this apparent hastiness and the view expressed during discussions with Moody’s analysts that the nature of the Budget is irrelevant to the financing plans of the Government clearly demonstrates the lack of understanding of such analysts. It also reflects serious governance weaknesses of such agencies, where they systematically overlook the positive developments and expectations in emerging market economies, but attribute much greater weight to downside risks.