also in the south asian region towards financial inclusion. by 2005, micro finance institutions covered at least 35mn of some 270mn people in the south asian region and met around 15 % of the overall credit requirements of low - income families. in sri lanka, the coverage is particularly high at 60 %. the high outreach in sri lanka is based on an extensive network of community - based organizations that receive considerable government subsidies. almost all rural financial institutions in sri lanka have provided easy access to women, particularly in the villages, estates and among fishing communities. financial institutions that are directly involved in this area, are the licensed commercial banks, licensed specialized banks, micro finance institutions, cooperative rural banks, the sanasa thrift and credit cooperative movement, seeds and other non - governmental organizations. let us examine the extent to which financial inclusion for women has taken place through the existing institutional network and assess the deficiencies and gaps, although we may not be able to do a comprehensive analysis. the participation of women in credit programs as at end december 2007 is given in the following table : table iii women ’ s participation in the credit programmes as at december 2007 value no. of loans institution rs. mn female total 50, 804 43, 277 94, 081 1, 614 n. a. * n. a. * n. a. * n. a. * 3. sanasa development bank 321, 687 246, 896 568, 583 13, 000 43. 42 thrift & credit societies 36, 726 85, 696 122, 422 2, 816 70. 00 4. cooperative rural banks ( crbs ) 316, 142 135, 490 451, 632 8, 999. 0 30. 00 5. poverty alleviation microfinance project ( pamp ) 12, 604 39, 388 51, 992 1, 058. 4 75. 76 6. small farmers & landless credit project ( sflcp ) 8, 681 9, 350 244. 5 92. 84 11, 540 23, 081 34, 621 1, 986 66. 67 1. regional development banks ( rdbs ) 2. licensed commercial banks ( lcbs ) 7. mfis – seeds ( sks ) male % received by women na – refers to the non - availability of disaggregated data source : regional development dept., central bank of sri lanka as shown in the table, the small farmers

ajith nivard cabraal : protecting financial systems from money laundering and terrorist financing activities keynote address by mr ajith nivard cabraal, governor of the central bank of sri lanka, at the world bank workshop on capacity enhancement for anti money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, colombo, 7 - 11 may 2007. * * * ladies & gentlemen, let me welcome you to the inaugural ceremony of this capacity enhancement workshop and extend to all overseas participants and representatives a very warm welcome to our country. i am also happy to be able today to share a few thoughts with you about the need to ensure the integrity of worldwide financial systems by protecting such systems from money laundering and terrorist financing activities. this is a challenging task as advancements in technology, especially in the financial services industry, have made it easier for criminals including terrorists to take advantage of liberalized financial markets, innovative technologies and the ease with which cross - border flows of financial transactions can take place. one of the most recent incidents in this regard is the sophistication with which, internationally active tamil tiger terrorists have successfully perpetrated a massive credit card fraud in london costing the british public, according to reports, about 100 million sterling pounds by skimming credit cards belonging to the british public. skimming has been a common technique used to raise funds for terrorists in algeria, kashmir and chechnya, and now it is clear that it is being extensively practiced in the western world too. the modus operandi in this case was said to be the “ cloning ” of credit cards skimmed at petrol sheds in various parts of england by the liberation tigers of tamil eelam ( ltte ) to fund its terrorist activities in sri lanka. it has been reported that about 200 independently owned petrol stations are said to be currently investigated where ltte terrorists operating under the guise of petrol shed staff have been involved. the investigations have also apparently revealed that the credit cards cloned in britain have been used to obtain funds in thailand, and some other far off parts of the world. in that context, what is important to note here is that such criminal activities could very well be happening in our own countries too, and we may be inadvertently funding terrorism ourselves. it is therefore clear that we have all got to be vigilant to ensure that these as well as other fund raising and laundering modalities are not adopted in our respective countries and to institute immediate and effective safeguards to combat them. my dear friends, this massive fraud in