Nimal, new CEO at PABC

Nimal Rohana Tillekeratne, former Seylan Bank Senior Deputy General Manager Branch Operations, has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Pan Asia Bank (PABC) with effect from April 3, PABC said in a stock market announcement.

Mr. Tillekeratne counts almost 40 years of service in the banking industry in Sri Lanka and overseas and is an associate member of Institute of Bankers, Sri Lanka and passed finalist of Executive Diploma Statistics from University of Moratuwa. He was in the Board of Sampath IT Systems PLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sampath Bank.

He was involved in setting up business processes at Cargills Bank for a short period. He replaces Dimantha Seneviratne who took up duties as CEO NDB early this year.

Despite being one of the poorest performing markets in the region, Sri Lanka’s stock market which has been in the doldrums has attracted a lot of foreign buying interest since of late.

This heavy investor participation stems mainly from the rate increase in the US bond market. While the rates going up is seeing foreign funds shifting back to the US from frontier markets such as Sri Lanka, a small component of their corresponding funds which invest in stock markets are being ploughed into the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), analysts say.

There has been continuous foreign selling in local bonds and as at January 1, 2017 it was US$ 2 million. The new regime under Donald Trump is trying to strengthen the US Dollar and luring back funds to the US.

Atchuthan Srirangan, Senior Research Analyst First Capital Equities noted that on the back of all