The Parliamentary Council decided to concur with the recommendation to appoint Mr. Anthony Nihal Fonseka as a member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Secretary-General of Parliament said today.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Parliamentary Council chaired by the Speaker Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Thursday (May 26).

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda and the Opposition MP Kabir Hashim were also present at the meeting.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Secretary-General Dhammika Dassanayake said that the Council also recommended the re-appointments of Ms. Dharani Shirantha Wijayatilake, Mr. Jayanta M. Swaminathan, Mr. A. A. Mohamed Fathihu and Ms. Sellathamby Sumithra as members of the Office for Reparations.

Mr. Fonseka was previously appointed as a member of the Central Bank’s Monetary Board in July, 2016. 

He obtained his BSc Degree from the University of Ceylon, Colombo and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, UK and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments, UK.

A banker by profession, Mr. Fonseka has held several key positions in the local and international banking sectors.

He was the Chief Executive Officer of the DFCC Bank for more than 13 years and prior to that was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Sri Lanka for 10 years.

He has also served as the Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange and the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and Pacific, Manila and also as a director of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, and DFCC Vardhana Bank PLC.

Mr. Fonseka was a member of the 2009 Presidential Commission on Taxation and until recently was a Member of the National Procurement Commission established under the Constitution. 

He has authored many articles and made many presentations at seminars and conferences locally and internationally.