NDB Bank chairman retires

After nine years as Chairman of the National Development Bank (NDB), S. K. Wickremesinghe will be retiring from this position from Tuesday, January 1. Wickremesinghe is a well known and much respected personality in the fields of business and diplomacy.

During his term of office, the NDB took a number of important steps to adapt to the new banking environment it had to face in Sri Lanka with the withdrawal of concessionary funding facilities extended by international sources such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for development activities.

This transition was achieved by first acquiring the banking business of the Colombo branch of ABN Amro Bank, and thereafter merging it with the existing development banking business of NDB. In this way the NDB was transformed into a universal bank with a full range of commercial and development banking facilities, the bank said in a statement.

Wickremesinghe’s place, as Director and Chairman, is being taken by P. M. Nagahawatte, a former Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and a Chairman of the Bank of Ceylon. Nagahawatte has also previously served as a Director of the NDB for a period of six years.