K. Sivagananathan Memorial Oration and Awards on 11 March

The 17th Annual K. Sivagananathan Memorial Awards and Oration will be held on Monday, 11 March. 

This Annual Memorial Oration and Awards ceremony is conducted jointly by the Association of Professional Bankers of Sri Lanka (APB) and K. Sivagananathan Memorial Trust (KSMT), in commemoration of the late K. Sivagananathan, who was an innovative banker and contributed much to uplift and upgrade Sri Lanka’s banking and financial services industry. He also worked tirelessly with the APB and IBSL to improve the standard of education in the field of banking and finance in Sri Lanka to be in par with international standards.

Chief Guest at this year’s event will be the former Sri Lanka cricket captain Mahela Jayawardena and the Guest of Honour Standard Chartered Bank Sri Lanka CEO Bingu Thewarathanthri will deliver the memorial oration. The occasion will be graced by APB President Asanka Ranhotty who will deliver the welcome speech.

25 students have obtained the highest marks in the Diploma in Applied Banking and Finance (DABF) in the March and September 2018 examinations conducted by the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL), who will be awarded cash prizes and certificates at the Awards this year.

The joint event conducted by APB and KSMT for the past 16 years has met the objectives of both institutions. The APB, a premier association serving the banking and financial institutions over the past 25 years has achieved many of its objectives year on year.

Its primary mission being to sustain the highest standards of professionalism and integrity among bankers, advance the public interest, influence the achievement of the highest ethical standards and governance in the banking industry, to undertake, promote and facilitate studies in the field of banking, organise and promote research in this field and to undertake studies and research projects for the Government, private sector, International agencies and other Institutions, plan and organise and arrange training programs, lectures, seminars, workshops in the field of banking and train students and others in research methodology with the idea of promoting knowledge and awareness in subjects relevant to banking.

KSMT is a non-profit organisation predominantly dedicated to providing assistance to students pursuing higher studies in the field of banking and finance, and encouraging them to excel in their examinations to achieve a higher standard to be in par with the developed countries, which was one of late K. Sivagananathan’s wishes.

Together both institutes with their common objective to serve the nation and to promote banking studies have successfully achieved their objectives for many years. 

The KSMT has distributed over one thousand cash prizes and certificates since 2002 to students who excelled in the banking exams conducted by the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka and has sponsored less privileged students to do the entire banking examination and also sponsored gold medals to be awarded at the Convocation of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka.

Once again a majority of the highest achievers in DABF examination hail from outstations such as Kandy, Jaffna, Moneragala, Bandarawela, Batticaloa, Amparai, Galle, etc. Late K. Sivagananathan who was keen to open the IBSL examinations not only to bankers but also to the public would be proud to see the excellent results shown by the non-bankers and students from outstation. 

The Board of Trustees of the K. Sivagananathan Memorial Trust consists of eminent bankers, educationists, top executives and businessmen. The Trustees of KSMT, Chairman Nathan Sivagananathan, Former Chief Growth Officer MAS Holdings and Venture Capitalist, Dr. N.E.H. Sanderatne, Economist and Visiting Senior Fellow, University of Peradeniya, Ex-Officio General Manager/CEO, Bank of Ceylon Senarath Bandara, Rohini Nanayakkara, Former General Manager of Bank of Ceylon, The Director General, Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka, Pius Joseph, Managing Director Joseph & Company and Dr. Arul Sivagananathan, Managing Director Hayleys Business Solutions Ltd. Further information can be viewed at www.kstrust.lk and www.apbsrilanka.org