Business tea with:

Chandula Abeywickrema

Shirajiv Sirimane

Banking facilities should be extended to the rural areas more aggressively to attract the unbaked community. This would also pave the way to eliminate the middlemen and bring in a better money stream which could be utilised for economic development, said Deputy General Manager Personal Banking and Network Management, Hatton National Bank, Chandula Abeywickrema.

Speaking from his spacious office at the HNB Towers yesterday he said the Central Bank should play a more aggressive role in this area and more incentives should be provided for banks venturing into the rural sector. Abeywickrema elaborated his views on the banking industry and providing an insight to the untilled areas of the industry.

Q:How do you analyse the banking industry in Lanka?

The banking industry is very competitive and is intense in the Western Province. This is because the plum of the business is in the Western Province, which holds a population of five million with every 3,000 to 5,000 people having access to a bank. In contrast 15,000 people in the rural population do not have access to banking.

That is the reason that more banks should venture out of Colombo to attract this vast untapped market in the SNE, Retail and Micro finance sector. All banks are providing a customer friendly service and banks have moved closer to people. Latest technology is also being used in the Sri Lankan banking sector, which is very impressive.

Q:How do you find the competition in the Western Province?

Very fierce. So mush so that if we place an advertisement giving 15 per cent interest another bank would advertise the following day offering 16 per cent interest.

Q:What are your views on the role played by the Central Bank?

I think that Central Bank should offer more incentives to drive other banks to set up more rural branches. This would bring in a stronger cash flow to the banks, which then can be diverted to development.

Q:Are you content with Central Bank’s present activities?

The introduction of the Basel Convention is timely. However they should be tougher towards Unlicensed Finance Companies operating freely.

It is very surprising how these unregistered companies can offer such high and attractive interest rates. Obviously they have something under their sleeve. The public should probe the company’s track record before making a deposit.

Q:Do you come across a lot of defaulters in the banking sector?

The small timers that take credit have a 95 per cent pay back ratio. It is said that there is bigger ratio of defaulters among the ‘big timers’.

Q:How is the knowledge of the new recruiters in the banking sector?

In the Western Province the knowledge of the new recruiters is exemplary. However in rural areas there are problems that has to be addressed immediately. The brain drain to the countries in the Gulf from Sri Lanka is getting intense and should also be addressed.

Q:Do Sri Lankan migrant workers utilise the banking system?

Sadly this ratio is very less. Once again the reason is that the workers do not have facilities in the rural areas to carry out the transactions. So they use informal methods.

Last year US $ 241 million was poured to the Sri Lankan economy through remittance and this year it is expected to be around US$ 400 million.

Therefore major awareness programs are needed to educate the workers in this area.

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PROFILE

Name: Chandula Abeywickrema

Age: 49 years

Nationality: Sri Lankan

Religion: Christian

Wife’s name: Chandrika Abeywickrema

Children: Daughter - Anya 20 years, Son - Chanula 12 years

Previous experience: Prior to joining Hatton National Bank in 1990 as Senior Manager - Marketing, worked at Lanka Orix Leasing Company Ltd for 6 years as Senior Marketing and Credit Executive

Primary and Secondary Education: Royal College, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Academic Qualifications: Bachelor of Commerce (Special), University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

Professional Exposure: Credit Analysis Training in Orix Corporation, Tokyo, Overseas Japan – 1988, Marketing Management Course conducted by the Faculty of Business Administration, National University of Singapore – 1994, Development of Business and Leadership Skills Ashridge University, UK – 1999 Finance & Banking in South East Asia conducted by the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarships, Tokyo, Japan - 2000

Other involvements: Member of the Sponsorship and Promotion Committee of The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka during the year 2001/2002, Currently Member of the Executive Committee of the Japan Sri Lanka Technical and Cultural Association (JASTECA) Head of ‘Banking With The Poor Network’ - Australia

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My Boss

Executive Secretary, HNB, Rosanne White says

My boss is flexible and works on time. He is open for suggestions, opinions and ideas and is an admirable personality. He is not bossy but is very active.

He is not a nagging but an encouraging character. I have made the habit of doing my work on time and do not leave bits for the next day. My boss demands early out comes especially when he goes out of the country, though I play around a bit with time, he pushes me to finish off the work.

Being a positive character I enjoy my job and I hold an attitude to make myself flexible according his moods. Since I have been working more than ten years with him I am thorough with his strengths and weaknesses. He appreciates my work and motivates me. Since, I look into every detail of my work it’s easy to handle my job.

My boss is emotional in instances. When things go wrong and does not turn out the way he wants he gets upset. He doesn’t keep others’ mistakes in his mind. He doesn’t hang on calls for too long. He is also religious. When it comes to dressing my boss likes short sleeve shirts.

Hathoon Sheriffdeen