Trade Finance Association of Bankers Celebrates 25th Anniversary

The Trade Finance Association of Bankers (TFAB) will hold its 25th anniversary celebrations on 3rd December 2022 at the Hilton Colombo. Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka,

Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest and deliver the keynote address. The theme of this year’s event is ‘Navigating International Trade Through Economic Turbulence’.  The event will also feature speeches by the Guest of Honour, Matthieu Andrieu – Head of Corporate Banking at Finastra and Lawrian Somanadar, President of TFAB.

TFAB was established in 1997 to educate bankers who specialize in trade finance and foster a sense of goodwill within this community. At the time of its launch, there was no centralized organization for trade finance bankers in Sri Lanka. TFAB’s main functions are trade finance banking education and skills development, promotion of consistent trade finance practices, facilitating the exchange views among bankers, and coordination with regulatory authorities. Furthermore, TFAB publishes periodical journals and newsletters.

Today, TFAB has over 1000 members. All commercial banks including state banks are members in this association. TFAB held a series of events throughout the year, beginning with a religious ceremony, taking the members on an on-site visit to the port, and a cricket six a side tournament. The upcoming celebrations will be this year’s highlight where Sri Lanka’s senior banking fraternity will be in attendance. Some key agenda items include the annual awards ceremony trade quiz and the recognition of past presidents and writers of the 25th anniversary volume. IFINITY, a technology enabler for seamless and invisible banking servicers, and Finastra, a global financial services software and cloud services provider, will be the principal sponsor of the event.

Representing the Principal Sponsor of the event, IFINITY Pvt Ltd. – Managing Director, Vajira Wijesinghe (Fourth from the right), handing over the sponsorship cheque to the President of TFAB – Lawrian Somanader (Fifth from the left). Also present are (from left) Assistant Treasurer TFAB – Kanchana Liyanage, Assistant Secretary TFAB – Indika Liyanage, Social Committee Chairman TFAB – Halin Hettigoda, Secretary General Rajaratnam TFAB – Naguleswaran, Head of IFINITY WISE Operations – Ushani Madawala, VP Business Applications – Prabath Gamage, Director Business and Operations – Jithendra Weerasekera