The farce that is the Central Bank of Sri Lanka – latest tragicomedy!

The mere mention of a mystery white knight come to save the bacon of the ETI Group of Companies from insolvency is the financing of US$100M from some Australian source adds to the hilarious story of the US$500M pumped in by a mysterious Belgian Investor to save the rupee.

What is this money? Is this ill gotten gains? Or mythical concepts to buy more time? I don’t know. However it sure smells a rat. Just like the Entrust case that is still not properly explained, namely when was this flagged, and why was it not out in the open earlier? How many skeletons are still lurking in the CB vaults waiting to be opened?

A significant task of the CB is to protect the people’s hard earned saving from scam artists, and those who take other people’s money, therefore have to be regulated, and the CB cannot hide under the umbrella of non regulated institutions, as they must be aware of all the goings on.

News items only giving half the story like in this case, does not bode well for the confidence of the citizens on its institutions, as who knows what might lurk in the shadows of these scams, completely eroding the confidence in the Financial sector per se. Is it kept under wraps just because of the worry of exposure on the whole financial system? I don’t know, I wish I did for the sake of the innocent saver.

It is agreed that the level of financial savvy of our people is so pathetic, that scam artists sprout daily into the open to fleece money from people. It is important to educate people on this aspect of planning so they don’t lose their shirt on bad investments.

How do we build the lost confidence when we don’t have faith in the guardians of our money? We are at a cross roads, that we have to tread carefully to determine where we emerge unscathed, especially in the new volatility of the markets.

Who comes next? If I have already discounted ETI, and ENTRUST? Is it THE FINANCE CO?

It seems that our financial journalist are not sufficiently versed in the nuances of explaining such stuff, due to their lack of competence in the subject matter. It is time they too wake up and do some serious reporting rather than add fuel to the already crop of divisive race based policies, which the PM pointed out yesterday is reflective of how much sour grapes are out there on Govt. policy.