SAARCFINANCE Governors’ Meetings

The SAARFINANCE Governors meet twice a year concurrently with the IMF/ WB Annual and Spring Meetings. Accordingly, the 20th SAARCFINANCE Governors' Meeting was held on 05 October 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey under the Chair of Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

H.E Governor Abdul Qadeer Fitrat, Governor, Da Afghanistan Bank, Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor, Bangladesh Bank, Mr. Daw Tenzin, Managing Director, RMA and Ms. Sonam Dema, Officer In-charge, Management Secretariat Unit, and SAARCFINANCE Coordinator (RMA), Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor, RBI and Shri Deepak Mohanty, Executive Director, RBI, Hon. Fazeel Najeeb, Governor of MMA and Ms. Neeza Imad, Executive Director, Human Resource Division of MMA, Mr. Bijaya Nath Bhattarai, Governor, NRB and Mr. Trilochan Pageni, Executive Director NRB, Mr. Syed Salim Raza, Governor, State Bank of Pakistan attended the meeting.

Mr. Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Governor, CBSL chaired the 20th SAARCFINANCE Governors' Meeting held on 05 October 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. P N Weerasinghe, Assistant Governor, CBSL accompanied the Governor.

Certain important decisions taken at the 20th SAARCFINANCE Governors' Meeting with regard to the SAARCFINANCE Web Folder and the Staff Exchange Policy were:

1. SAARCFINANCE Web Folder: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to host the SAARCFINANCE Website
2. SAARCFINANCE Staff Exchange: Governors agreed with the terms of the template of Staff Exchange subject to the following amendments:
   1. The RBI would continue with their current liberal policy of providing all facilities free of charge to the participating Bank.
   2. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would be pleased to continue with its policy of bearing the entire cost of local hospitalities for SAARCFINANCE activities in Pakistan, including the Staff Exchange Programmes.
   3. CBSL, with its newly built facilities would accommodate 200 room nights per year free of charge for the purpose of Staff Exchange.

The SAARCFINANCE Governors meet twice a year concurrently with the IMF/WB annual and spring meetings. Since its inception, seventeen SAARCFINANCE Governors’ meetings were held till now.

The 17th SAARCFINANCE Governors’ meeting was held on the sidelines of the Fund-Bank Spring Meeting at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C on April 12, 2008. Dr. Y. V. Reddy, Governor, Reserve Bank of India and the Chair, SAARCFINANCE presided over the meeting. In addition, Dr. Arvind Virmani, Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Mr. Madhusudan Prasad, Joint Secretary, Fund-Bank, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Dr. R.K.Pattnaik, Adviser, Reserve Bank of India and SAARCFINANCE Co-ordinator (India), Dr. Partha Ray, Adviser, ED (India), IMF and Mr. K. Damodaran, EA to Governor, RBI also attended the Meeting.  Mr. Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr. (Mrs.) Ranee Jayamaha. Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Mr. K .G. D. D. Dheerasinghe, Alternative Executive Director, IMF and Dr. P. N. Weerasingha, Director, Economic Research/Chief Economist of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka also attended the meeting.

Other countries?

Major decisions that were taken during the 17th SAARCFINANCE Governors’ meeting were –

Reconfirmation by the Secretariat from Bangladesh regarding seminar on Corporate Governance in Banks and Financial Institutions in SAARC Countries.

Confirmation from Pakistan by the Secretariat on the areas of further collaboration and assistance under Staff Exchange Programme.

Secretariat would collect the research study on Trade in South Asian Region from Pakistan and circulate to members.

Secretariat to circulate the resolutions passed in the meeting regarding the suo moto participation of the SAARC member countries in the training programmes of any other member country; and the utilisation of the Training Centre at Sri Lanka for conducting joint programmes.

Secretariat to prepare a questionnaire in consultation with the members to include qualitative aspects of the credit information bureau.

Sri Lanka to confirm to the Secretariat the modalities of seminar on foreign exchange reserve management.

SAARCFINANCE Co-ordinators' Meetings

The 9th SAARCFINANCE Co-ordinators’ Meeting was organized by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Mumbai on February 12, 2008. All Co-ordinators excepting that of Pakistan participated in the meeting.

Major decisions that were taken during the 9th SAARCFINANCE Co-ordinators’ meeting were –

Research Projects/Symposia planned to be undertaken during 2008 and 2009 should be forwarded to the Secretariat by end February 2008;

Member country may request India or other member countries for technical assistance as part of SAARCFINANCE’s effort to share knowledge with one another;

All countries should forward their training programmes to the Secretariat by end-February 2008 for circulation so that member countries could take advantage of them.  Those training programmes should also be hosted in the SAARCFINANCE Web folder;

Training on other issues such as banking regulation, payment system, etc., may be requested to the member country concerned;

Central Bank of Sri Lanka to prepare a scheme of operationalisation of ‘Centre for Banking Studies’ providing various options of its financing for circulation;

RBI to prepare a draft on common website on SAARCFINANCE activities  taking into account of IMF’s GDDS for circulation amongst member countries;

Central Bank of Sri Lanka to present the paper on the proposal of Regional Payments Council to the SAARC Governors’ meeting in Washington in April 2008;

Member countries should give their respective position with regard to South Asia Credit Bureau indicating objectives, institutional set up and legal structure to the Secretariat for consolidation; the proposal may be placed in the SAARC Governors’ meeting in April 2008. SAARC Payment Council (SPC) Meeting

Mrs. Aishath Zahira Latheef, Senior Executive Director of the MMA attended the ‘2nd Meeting of the SAARC Payments Council’ held in Hyderabad, India on June 30, 2008.