K. Sivagananathan Memorial Oration and Awards tomorrow

The 15th Annual K. Sivagananathan Memorial Trust (KSMT) Awards will be held on Tuesday, 14 March. 

This Annual Memorial Oration and Awards ceremony is conducted together with the Association of Professional Bankers of Sri Lanka (APB) in commemoration of the late K. Sivagananathan who was an innovative banker and contributed much to uplift and upgrade Sri Lanka’s premier State bank – the Bank of Ceylon.

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 on par with international standards.

Chief Guest at this year’s event Dr. Harsha de Silva, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs will deliver the Memorial Oration. The Guest of Honour for the evening will be Ronald C Perera, President’s Counsel, and Chairman of Bank of Ceylon.

Over 40 students who have obtained the highest marks in the Diploma in Applied Banking & Finance (DABF) in the March and September 2016 examinations conducted by the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL), will be awarded cash prizes and certificates at the Awards this year. 

As a result of the banking examinations conducted by the IBSL, affiliated to “IFS School of Finance”, UK, formerly known as the Chartered Institute of Bankers London, open to the bankers and public, tremendous enthusiasm has been shown not only by bankers but by those who aspire for a career in banking and finance. The joint event conducted by APB and KSMT for the past 14 years has met the objectives of both institutions. The APB, a premier association serving the banking and financial institutions over 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.

The K. Sivagananathan Memorial Trust (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. 

The KSMT has distributed over 750 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 needy 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 majority of the highest achievers in DABF examination hail from outstations like Mirigama, Kandy, Chunnakam, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Moneragala, Bandarawela, Bandaragama, Beliatta, Ambalantota, Nattandiya, Imbulgoda, Batticaloa, Amparai,  Narammala, Pelmadulla, Udugampola, Mahiyanganaya, Chanknai, Mathugama, Neervely, Meegoda etc.  Late K. Sivagananathan who was keen to open the IBSL examinations not only to bankers but also to 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 mercantile executives and businessmen. Following are the Trustees, Deshamanya A.S. Jayawardena, former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka and former Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Dr. N.E.H. Sanderatne, Visiting Senior Fellow, University of Peradeniya, D.M. Gunasekera, General Manager, Bank of Ceylon, Rohini Nanayakkara, Former General Manager of Bank of Ceylon, the Director General, Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka, Pius Joseph, Managing Director Joseph & Company, Dr. Arul Sivagananathan, Managing Director Hayleys Engineering, Power and Energy sector and Nathan Sivagananathan, Chief Growth Officer MAS Holdings, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of KSMT (www.kstrust.lk).