The Sri Lanka Banks Association (SLBA) in a meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) today pledged its fullest support to revive the country’s economy following the damage inflicted by Cyclone Ditwah.
The banks represented by the Association stated that a detailed impact assessment has already been initiated across banks to identify the impact to individuals, small businesses and large corporates and encouraged impacted customers to speak to their respective Bank Branch Managers.
Based on the findings, the banks pledged to offer suitable financial assistance through a Disaster Debt Relief Package to ensure individuals and businesses impacted by Cyclone Ditwah are able to return to normalcy without delay. As a regulated industry, all relief measures will be undertaken in discussion with the CBSL.
The banks also confirmed their readiness to actively participate in economic relief programmes that may be initiated by the Government in partnership with Multilateral Development Agencies.
In addition, individual member banks have indicated they will review pending gold loan auctions with a view to exploring the possibility of delaying the process where viable, to provide affected borrowers more time to repay and redeem, the SLBA said.
The SLBA noted that the banking sector has always stepped forward to support economic revival and nation building in times of crisis, including most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis of 2022, and pledged to do so during the current crisis as well.
The Sri Lanka Banks’ Association is the apex industry body of all Licensed Commercial Banks and Licensed Specialised Banks with a membership of 29 banks in the country.
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