Governor’s Challenge  Trophy on 12 December

On 15 September 2008, this leading global firm filed for bankruptcy protection following the massive exodus of most of its clients, drastic losses in its stock and devaluation of its assets by credit rating agencies. The filing marked the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and is thought to have played a major role in the unfolding of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). What is this company?

Above is one of many interesting and informative questions posed last year, to more than 250 contestants vying for the prestigious Global Commerce Quiz (GCQ) for the Central Bank Governor’s Challenge Trophy.

The event, conducted by the Sri Lanka branch of the International Quizzing Association (IQA), on behalf of the Shippers’ Academy Colombo (SAC) and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), drew most of Sri Lanka’s best quizzing talent in the form of 50 teams comprising financial institutes, mercantile establishments, individual independent teams, schools and educational institutes.

The quiz was a history making event as it also featured, for the first time, international teams from India, Bangladesh, Maldives and Pakistan central banks.

The Seylan Bank team emerged the first-ever winners of the Global Commerce Quiz and was awarded the  prestigious Governor’s Challenge Trophy by Nivard Cabral, the Central Bank Governor, while individual teams of Imran Furkhan and Vindana Ariyawansa won the runners up and the third place. Seylan Bank also won the Banks and Financial Sector award.  

Other Sector awards were won by Ananda College (Schools and Educational Institutes), Sri Lanka Insurance (Public Sector), Dialog Axiata (Mercantile Establishments) and Imran Furkhan’s team (Individual Team Sector).

Due to the open market policies adopted since late 1970s, Sri Lanka has been always in the forefront over its South Asian neighbours in engaging in international trade and commerce. However, with the end of the war in May 2009 and the dawn of peace, unprecedented opportunities as well as challenges have sprung up to further harness the economic benefits of engaging in international trade. The challenge now is to attract more young people to the commercial world and to improve the skills of all those who are already in the field.

Furthermore, there is this false perception amongst Sri Lankans that trade and commerce is not so elite in comparison with other professions such as medicine and engineering. The use of quizzing as a medium to address these challenges and to enhance awareness about the beauty of trade and commerce was the brainchild of Rohan Masakorala, the Chief Executive Officer of the Shippers Academy Colombo when he invited Ruwan Senanayake, Country representative of IQA in Sri Lanka to partner the academy in this worthy endeavour.

According to Ruwan Senanayake, Country Representative of the IQA: “The purpose of conducting a mind sport of this nature is not only to test the knowledge of participants, but also to test their ability to recall what is known within the stipulated time. Like in any other competitive sports, one has to practice hard and regularly train  to keep the mental muscles in top notch to do well in a highly competitive atmosphere like that is experienced in IQA conducted quizzes.”

IQA Sri Lanka were also the pioneers in making table quizzes very interesting by applying to many senses through the employment of multimedia-based (audio visual) questions.

Already more than 40 teams have registered to compete in this year’s Global Commerce Quiz C to be held on 12 December2012 at Taj Samudra Hotel, Colombo. Winners will receive the prestigious Global Commerce Challenge Trophy plus a cash price.

By the way, the answer to the question at the beginning of this article is Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.