"One such negative fall-out is “de-risking”, the scenario of global banks selectively withdrawing from the business of correspondent banking. This can have highly detrimental implications for banks in developing countries in particular as it can shut them out of the global financial architecture," the Minister added. Minister Samaraweera also stated that the challenge for countries like Sri Lanka is how to ensure continued progress of financial inclusion in this context. "At a more micro-level, one of the major objectives of our government, embodied in the 2018 Budget themed Enterprise Sri Lanka, is to empower entrepreneurs by providing access to finance. In order to ensure access to finance at grass roots level, it is important for the Sri Lankan financial system to have robust access and engagement with the global financial architecture", Samaraweera said.

Source: Sunday Times April 17, 2018 15:22 UTC