Live discussion on impact of COVID-19 on SL Banking and Finance

Held in April 2020, in the earliest, most acute weeks of Sri Lanka’s pandemic lockdown, this discussion brought together an unusually high-powered lineup from the very top of the financial system: Yvette Fernando, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Manil Jayesinghe, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Roshan Abeygoonewardena, Chairman of the Finance Houses Association of Sri Lanka, and Jonathan Alles, CEO of Hatton National Bank, moderated by Advocata Chairman Murtaza Jafferjee. With businesses shuttered and cash flow drying up almost overnight, the panel addressed the most urgent questions facing the sector in real time: how banks and finance companies could manage a sudden spike in loan defaults and moratorium requests, what regulatory relief the Central Bank was prepared to offer to keep credit flowing to businesses, and how the non-bank finance sector — often serving smaller borrowers with less capital buffer — could avoid a systemic liquidity crunch. The main highlight was Assistant Governor Fernando’s direct line to regulatory policy: as the panel’s most senior official voice, she was able to speak to the specific relief measures the Central Bank was deploying, giving businesses and depositors a rare, authoritative real-time read on the state’s response at a moment of maximum uncertainty.