Union Bank appoints top Central Banker to director board

The board of directors of Union Bank of Colombo PLC announced the appointment of veteran Central Banker C.J.P. Siriwardana as Independent Non-executive Director, with effect from  November 2, 2020. 

Siriwardana’s appointment comes in the wake of the retirement of Priyantha Fernando from the board of the bank, with effect from November 1, 2020, having completed his nine-year service period, as per the corporate governance directions issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). 

Siriwardana functioned as Deputy Governor of the CBSL since August 2017, until his retirement in October 2018. 
Siriwardana holds an M.Sc. degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Quantitative Development Economics from the University of Warwick, UK alongside a B.Sc. degree in Agriculture from the University of Ruhuna. 

He also functioned as Deputy Governor overseeing the Bank Supervision, Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institutions, Public Debt, Payments and Settlements, Finance, Secretariat, Information Technology and Risk Management Departments and FIU. 

He was Chairman of the National Payment Council, Financial System Stability Committee and Tender Boards of Treasury Bonds and Treasury Bills, in addition to being a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Inter Regulatory Institutions Committee and Non-Financial Risk Management Committee. 

Siriwardana has over 32 years of experience in the CBSL, especially in the areas of economic and price stability, financial system stability and certain agency functions. 

Prior to being appointed as Deputy Governor, he held the position of Assistant Governor in-charge of Public Debt, Information Technology, Legal and Compliance, Macroprudential Surveillance, Human Resources, Policy Review and Monitoring, Payments and Settlement and Risk Management Departments. He has also functioned as Secretary to the Monetary Board of the CBSL. 

During his extensive career at the CBSL, Siriwardana has participated in various national and international fora, representing the government and CBSL. 

He has also participated in a number of international training programmes in the areas of risk management, debt management, investment management, financial stability, monetary policy, leadership and rural development and has made special contributions and innovations for the improvement of standards, especially in the fields of debt management and investments. 

Siriwardana has also served as a Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, Director of the Insurance Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, Chairman of the Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka, Head of the Financial Sector Consolidation Unit of the CBSL, Deputy Secretary General of the National Economic Council of Sri Lanka and a Director of the Ceylon Electricity Board, LankaClear (Pvt.) Ltd and Colombo Dockyard PLC and an Observer of the board of directors of the Board of Investment (BOI). 

At present, he functions as a Director of the Colombo Stock Exchange. 

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 forums in different capacities and was a faculty member of the South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Research and Training Centre, Malaysia.