Six failed finance companies held Rs. 62 b in deposits

• State Minister Cabraal tells P’ment over 256,000 depositors affected by the collapse of these finance companies
• Says Govt. has taken measures to assist depositors recover their money

By Chandani Kirinde 

Nearly Rs. 62 billion had been deposited in six failed finance companies in the past six years, State Minister of Finance, Money and Capital Markets and Staten Enterprises Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Parliament yesterday.

He said 256,306 customers had deposited money totaling Rs. 61.79  billion between 2015 and August 2020.

The failed finance companies are Central Investment and Finance Ltd. (previously Central Investment and Finance PLC), The Standard Credit Finance Ltd., TKS Finance Ltd., The Finance Company PLC, ETI Finance Ltd., and Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC.

The Finance Company had 147,152 customers who made deposits of Rs. 27,400 million, ETI Finance had 37,586 with Rs. 22,648 million in deposits, Central Investment and Finance had 20,161 with Rs. 3,965 million, the Standard Credit Finance had 6600 depositors with Rs. 2,721 million,  TKS Finance had 35,184 with Rs. 2,691 million deposits and Swarnamahal Finance Services had 9,623 who had deposited Rs. 2,372 million.

Cabraal tabled in the House the names of the members of the director boards of these finance companies and what measures have been taken by the Central Bank to assist the depositors to recover their money from each of these companies.

He added that there are 41 financial institutions registered under Central Bank of Sri Lanka as of 31 August 2020.

The Minister disclosed the information in response to a question raised by SJB MP Hesha Withanage.