Association of Professional Bankers Sri Lanka holds 31st AGM

From left: APB Treasurer Indika Kudagamage, Secretary General Anton Arumugam, President Aruna Fernando, Immediate Past President C. Amarasinghe and Senior Vice President K.B. Rajapakse at the APB 31st Annual General Meeting 

‘Three Decades of Professional Banking Excellence: Association of Professional Bankers – Sri Lanka (APB) (1988 -2018)’ book presented by APB President Aruna Fernando (left) to Founder Member, Past President and Advisory Council Member Kathiravellupillai

The 31st Annual General Meeting of the Association of Professional Bankers – Sri Lanka was held on Friday 24 July at the Bougainvillea Ballroom of the Galadari Hotel, Colombo on a hybrid basis, where a

APB Secretary General  Anton Arumugam

APB Secretary General  Anton Arumugam

APB Immediate Past President  C. Amarasinghe

large number of APB members attended the meeting physically abiding the prevailing health and social distancing guidelines whilst another set of members attended the meeting virtually as well. 

The above AGM was held based on the expert advice received by APB on holding of a hybrid AGM after the indefinite postponement of the initially scheduled AGM in March due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

At this Annual General Meeting on 24 July, the APB members elected the Office Bearers and the Council Members for the year 2020/21. Accordingly, Aruna Fernando was elected as the 32nd President of this premier association of the bankers in the country. Fernando counts nearly 32 years of experience in the banking industry having started his career at Commercial Bank in October 1988 at the young age of 19 years, just after his school education at Mahanama College, Colombo 3. 

Fernando is an expert in Bank Risk Management and was part of the team that set up the Integrated Risk Management Dept. at Commercial Bank. He joined Seylan Bank PLC, in May 2013 as the Assistant General Manager – Credit Risk and was appointed as Seylan Bank’s Acting Chief Risk Officer in September 2018. Fernando holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and is currently reading for a Master of Financial Economics degree from the University of Colombo. 

Also, another important feature of the above mentioned Annual General Meeting was the launching of the book titled ‘Three Decades of Professional Banking Excellence: Association of Professional Bankers – Sri Lanka (APB) (1988 -2018)’ which was compiled by Dr. Viruli de Silva based on the reminisces of A. Kathiravellupillai, Founder Member, Past President and Advisory Council Member.  

– Pix by Ruwan Walpola