Monetary Board gets new Secretary

The Central Bank announced yesterday it has appointed Assistant Governor C.J.P. Siriwardana as the Secretary to the Monetary Board with effect from 14 July.
Siriwardana joined the Central Bank as a Staff Officer in 1986 after graduating from the University of Ruhuna with a B.Sc. Degree (Hons) in Agriculture. In 1994, he received his Master’s Degree in Quantitative Development Economics from the University of Warwick, UK.
At present, being the Assistant Governor in charge of the Bank Supervision Department, Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institutions Department and Financial Stability Studies in the Financial System Stability cluster, he leads the ongoing Financial Sector Consolidation Program.
Prior to this, he functioned as the Assistant Governor in charge of the Economic and Price Stability Cluster. During his 28 years of service in the bank, he has gained wide experience in the areas of economic research, public debt management and rural credit.
With his specialised knowledge in managing public debt, Siriwardana designed a new sovereign rating strategy for Sri Lanka in order to improve the country’s rating to an investment grade in 2016. He has also completed several assignments and innovations contributing to the improvement of the bank and the economy such as developing a new strategy to improve the country’s Doing Business Rating, conducting a study on Emerging Threat of Middle Income Trap on Sri Lankan Economy and developing a concept and organising the first SAARC countries’ Debt Managers’ Forum.
He also contributed significantly to improve the public debt management of the country by serving as a member in international road shows, arranging the Central Bank’s first cross currency SWAP deal, organising the first club loan with international banks and arranging investor awareness programs.
Siriwardana has authored many articles in reputed international and local journals in the fields of public finance, debt management and bond market development. He is also a regular speaker at various fora in different capacities and is a faculty member of the SEACEN Institute, Malaysia.