Beware, Investors May Get “Sakvithified” / “Golden Keyed”!

At last Thursday’s evening presentation at the Centre for Banking Studies on “Taming The Beast In The Forest – Experiences From The Finance Companies” by Nelumani Daulagala, Director Department of Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institutions, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, when I posed the question to the learned members of the “Discussion Panel” as to whether the companies inviting investments for tree plantation were registered and monitored by the  CBSL, Assistant Governor – Central Bank of Sri Lanka, P. Samarasiri in his response said that these are not  registered with the Central Bank and that these companies are only governed by the Companies Act.

I am of the opinion that either the public should be specifically informed that these companies are not registered with the CBSL and therefore, these are very high risk investments or the better option is to get these under the purview of the CBSL so that public money is not swindled, again.

I suggest that Governor of CBSL, Nivard Cabraal promulgates new legislation or amend existing finance/monetary regulations to be able to monitor these organisations before the investors get “sakvtihified”! Over to the Governor to take suitable remedial action to safeguard the investments of the gullible public.

Mohamed Zahran

Colombo 3