A giant in the lankan banking sector

Edgar Gunatunge retired from Commercial Bank in 1991 as Managing Director after an illustrious career, where he joined as a junior clerk and rose to be the Managing Director. He was seeking a happy retirement to spend time among other things and his favorite hobbies nurturing Orchid Flowers" and sports.

At the request of the Governor of Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Directors of the relatively young Sampath Bank, he was persuaded to join Sampath Bank as the Managing Director cum Deputy Chairman. The reason for CBSL to get Edgar Gunatunge to take the post at Sampath was to stabilise the young bank and stop the run on its deposits.

Edgar joins Sampath Bank was the newspaper headlines, the day news was confirmed, and Gunatunge will take up reins at Sampath.

The fact that Gunatunge joined Sampath Bank as MD/CEO cum Deputy Chairman helped to stop the run on deposits and brought stability to Sampath Bank. He introduced far-reaching changes, policies and procedures that streamlined the new Bank's operations.

He brought in new customers and helped build Entrepreneurs into big corporate names after stabilising the Sampath Bank, Edgar Gunatunge wanted to step down after two years, but the Board of Directors persuaded him to stay on and continue building Sampath Bank.

He was instrumental in getting the Bank to buy a Head Office building under a separate subsidiary. Finally, on 31 December 1996, Edgar Gunatunge said enough was enough as stepped down as Managing Director/CEO and Deputy Chairman.

However, due to his valuable contribution, the Board of Directors of Sampath Bank was not willing to let him leave the Bank and persuaded him to stay on as a Director.

In September 1998, with the passing away of the ailing then Chairman of Sampath Bank, Dunstan De Alwis, the Board of Directors of Sampath unanimously resolved to appoint Edgar Gunatunge as the Chairman of Sampath Bank.

Though Edgar Gunatunge was a Non-Executive Chairman; he would daily visit the Bank. He became the father figure at Sampath, well known in the outside world. When he took over as Chairman of the decade old Bank, which he had helped to survive in it's formative years. Sampath has grown from 36 branches to a Bank having 112 branches now.

In 2000, Edgar Gunatunge continued to be the Chairman when Sampath Bank went through an attempted hostile takeover of the Bank, by a business tycoon, whom very few people were willing to oppose at that time. With the failure of the attempted takeover of Sampath, Edgar guided Sampath to set up/acquire subsidiaries in stock brokering, leasing and IT areas.

During the period Sampath acquired at 30% stake in former Vanik Bangladesh, by buying up the stake owned by Vanik Incorporation Ltd. This Company in Bangladesh which is a credit card issuer and leasing company, was provided technical assistance and management expertise by Sampath Bank.

This helped the Company which was re-named as Lanka Bangla Finance Ltd, to become very profitable. This company is now listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

A few months after the collapse of Pramuka Bank, when Union Bank of Colombo (Ltd) was having difficulties, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Shareholders of Union Bank of Colombo, requested Sampath bank to help avoid Union Bank collapsing.

Since he was mindful of the damage to the country's economy, if a Bank fails, Edgar persuaded Sampath's Directors to help re-structure Union Bank, whereby Sampath gained a 24% equity of Union Bank at the time of re-structureing. Edgar and Sampath now see their efforts have borne fruit and now Union Bank is a viable strong Bank.

In November 2005 the President of the country at the time, honoured Gunatunge for the services he had done to the commercial sector specially to the banking sector by awarding him with Sri Lanka Sikhamani the highest honour a person can get in the field. Edgar as he is popularly known was a Past Chairman of the Sri Lanka Bank's Association as well as a Past President of the elite Banker's Club.