Foreign reserves comfortable, no cause for alarm, says CB Governor

Dormant bank accounts in Sri Lankan banks will be transferred to the Central Bank only after 10 years and not one year as reported in a local newspaper, Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran said on Thursday.
Briefing journalists in Colombo, he said he had spoken to the Minister of Finance on this subject who underlined the normal procedure that if monies have been lying dormant in an account for 10 years then such monies are traditionally transferred to the Central Bank until such time till the valid owner comes forward to claim it even after 30 years.
”We take steps to freeze such monies until the owner claims it. This was the standard procedure. However the Minister also suggested that such monies could also be transferred to the Consolidated Fund. The monies that are in the Central Bank are used to buy Treasury Bills. When such monies are returned the depositor will be paid with interest from the bank,” he said.
Referring to foreign reserves, Mr. Mahendran said that the Bank had comfortable foreign reserves and the country was not in need of an emergency loan facility at the moment. 
“There is absolutely no cause of alarm. We want foreign investors to know that Sri Lanka was on a stable path with internationally accepted principles. That reassurance was made by the Prime Minter when addressed the parliament recently. We are currently talking to the IMF and the World Bank on re-financing swaps on concessionary terms. It is not that we don’t have money,” he said.
The Governor said Sri Lankan interest rates were high and it is not prudent to raise it at this juncture as it would be detrimental to businesses. “Let’s wait and see what the Federal Reserve does in the future.” Asked what would be the impact of global investor and philanthropist George Sores visiting the country next week, the Governor said his visit would boost investor confidence in the country. (Jayampathy)