SAARC finance conference

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Friday hosted a SAARC Finance Conference on the theme ‘Towards a Regional Payments Group’ at the Central Bank office. Members of the National Payment Council and senior executives of banks expected the meeting.

The seminar was organized for two purposes. First to identify the advantages of establishing a regional payments group and second to examine how the countries in the South Asian region can collectively work within such a regional institutional framework to: establish a dynamic and coordinated working relationship among the South Asian countries to identify common concerns on payment system development; identify possible common approaches or policies that help the national as well as regional payments systems to continue with the advancements; and to identify key success factors and the way forward for establishing such a regional payments group. The welcome address of the seminar was delivered by W. A. Wijewardena, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank while Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal made the inaugural address on ‘Towards Regional Cooperation’.

Other presentations were made by Dr. Ranee Jayamaha, Deputy Governor on ‘Policy Framework for Regional Cooperation and the Role of the Central Bank in Promoting a Regional Payment Group’, Marc Hollanders, Head, Secretariat of the Committee on Payment & Settlement Systems (CPSS), Bank for International Settlements on ‘2015 or 2020 Vision on Payment System Development, Challenges and Way Forward’, Massimo Cirasino, Head, Payment System Development Group, the World Bank on ‘The Evolution of Dynamic Regional Groups of Payments and Settlements’ and Vittaldas Leeladhar, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India on ‘Need for Regional Efforts in Mitigating Cross Border Payment Risk’.

Many central banks in the South Asian region have implemented or are involved in reforming their national payment and settlement systems.