sunil mendis : central bank governance and how such governance is related to strategic planning in central banks opening remarks by mr sunil mendis, governor of the central bank of sri lanka, at the 3rd seacen exco seminar and meeting, colombo, 28 - 29 january 2005. * * * deputy governors and heads of delegations of seacen member and observer countries, mr gavin bingham, head of international liaison of bis, dr subarjo joyosumarto, executive director of the seacen centre, distinguished invitees, ladies and gentlemen. it gives me great pleasure to inaugurate the 3rd seacen exco meeting and special seminar to mark the meeting. as a founder member of seacen, the central bank of sri lanka is honoured and delighted to host these two events in colombo, sri lanka. on behalf of the central bank of sri lanka, i extend a warm welcome to all the delegates from the seacen member and observer countries, our special guests, and of course, the officials of the seacen centre. the gathering of several distinguished central bankers today demonstrates the emphasis and importance placed by them on the need for co - operating with each other to resolve issues of mutual interest. we host these two events just a month after the deadly ‘ tsunami ’ hit some of our countries causing unprecedented and unimaginable destructions to the life and property. we are still recovering from this severe blow. tsunami, indeed, brought all of us even closer. our thoughts and prayers are with those who lost their beloved ones, property and suffered injuries. as monetary authorities in these countries, we have greater challenges before us in rebuilding our nations. i hope we could effectively face these challenges with active cooperation of all central banks in the region. we live in an era of rapid globalisation. enriched by vast advances in information and communication technology, the process has facilitated the free flow of trade and investments across the borders. this has also posed burgeoning management challenges to central banks in the form of how to plan for the future in a scenario of multiples of objectives and targets entrusted to them. in order to overcome these challenges, the central banks world over, are called upon to review their objectives and restructure their activities. such review processes encompass re - examining legal frameworks, accounting practices and policies, organisational structures including the change in the composition of boards, supervisory and human resources standards, to mention but a few of the new tasks. having realised this need, the

ranee jayamaha : basel ii – a roadmap for sri lankan banking system with international comparisons opening remarks by dr ranee jayamaha, deputy governor of the central bank of sri lanka, at an event of lecture series, organized by the association of professional bankers, colombo, 18 december 2006. * * * mr. theagarajah, mr. ajantha madurapperuma, officials of the association of professional bankers, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen. thank you for the invitation to deliver the opening speech on “ basel ii – a roadmap for sri lankan banking system with international comparisons ”. let me deviate a bit from the topic and first deal with the flexible approach the central bank of sri lanka ( cbsl ) has adopted in moving forward for full compliance of basel ii in the next few years. i will then set out some of the key implementation issues which need to be addressed not only by us but also by the basel committee and all host / home supervisors. for international comparison, i will provide a brief a summary of how some of the other countries have fared in implementing basel ii from 2008 onwards. mr samarasiri, director, bank supervision will outline a broad roadmap in implementing basel ii. the basel committee on banking supervision has released the document, “ international convergence of capital measurement and capital standards : a revised framework ” in june 2004 which is well known as basel ii. since then, the bankers and the regulators all over the world have been occupied with the adoption of the revised framework. the accord in full is meant for the internationally active banks but other banks are expected to follow suit. although international institutions such as the imf and the world bank have announced that the adoption of basel ii will not be a yardstick for measuring compliance with the international best practice, sooner than later it will be the international norm and they will start monitoring the progress. so, there is no point in debating whether or not we should implement basel ii. the debate, if at all, should be how best to implement it and, where possible, be ahead of others. overall, the benefits to the industry in terms of improvements in risk management and corporate governance and the supervisory action embedded in the accord cannot be ignored. basel ii has three mutually reinforcing pillars, namely, the minimum capital requirement under pillar i, the supervisory review process which is pillar ii and market discipline or pillar iii. the whole purpose of this exercise is to make capital the