Minister of State for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said that even if the country’s economy collapses or a bank goes bankrupt, the new Banking (Special Provisions) Act will ensure the safety of depositors’ deposits.
The minister made these comments explaining the importance of the new banking laws to be presented to Parliament.
“The Bank Special Arrangements Act is very important for the economic stabilization of the entire country. This is mainly about customer safety. Creating a stronger legal framework than ever before. There are 57,200,000 bank depositors in our country. It means that some people have two or three accounts. There are 15 trillion in these accounts. That means fifteen thousand billion in terms of billions. Here we need to protect this 15000 billion.
In recent days, the security of these deposits has created a great controversy. We have seen the plight of depositors in recent days when many financial institutions are in trouble. What happens with this new banking act is that if the stability of any financial institution decreases in any way, the central bank can intervene more directly and immediately than before. This gives the opportunity to the depositors to get insurance for their deposits through the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Also, the central bank will be able to investigate commercial-grade banks more than usual. The central bank will be able to intervene in the security of banks to take immediate action. And this insurance system is even supported by the World Bank. Let’s imagine that if a bank collapses, the depositors will get their entire deposit, interest etc., through the insurance of that central bank, in a certain way. No matter what economic problem the country is facing, even if the bank collapses, the Bank Special Arrangements Act has been prepared so that 100% of the depositors are protected.” Said the Minister of State for Finance.
