20 February 2018 01:00 am
The Central Bank is yet to see whether the measures taken through its six-month programme to increase the liquidity in the troubled ETI Group
are successful.
The Central Bank, in the first week of January, appointed a three-member panel comprising former Central Bank Assistant Governor Sepala Ratnayake, former Bank of Ceylon Senior Deputy General Manager P.A. Lionel and former Bank of Ceylon Assistant General Manager H.M. Thilakarathne, to return the ETI Group companies to normalcy, within a period of six months.
“It’s too early to tell. What we’re trying to do is stop the bleeding, which was happening day by day,” Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy said at a recent media briefing, a month and a half after the six-month programme was started.
He said that the Central Bank is leaving the operations in the hands of the three-member expert panel, which was appointed to bring the required liquidity into ETI Finance Ltd and its subsidiary Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC by restricting withdrawals and ensuring the inflow of funds.
Dr. Coomaraswamy added that a number of investments have to come into ETI Group to fully address the liquidity concerns, even after the US $ 85 million investment lined up is realized.
“This investment that is there needs to come in. That would help to stabilize but that won’t be the end of the story. There needs to be further investments. I think the owners are looking for other investors as well,” he said.
He added that the investment currently being negotiated has still to go through further checks from the Central Bank.
If the realized investment and liquidity injection isn’t realized, the Central Bank would have to wind up the group, Dr. Coomaraswamy had said in the past.
The Central Bank is now adopting a tougher stance towards non-banking financial corporations.