Dhammika Perera to be removed from Sampath Bank

A move is afoot to remove wealthy businessman Dhammika Perera as chairman of Sampath Bank and get Haris Premaratne appointed a director, with the ultimate aim of making Premaratne chairman, according to reports reaching.

Premaratne, presently a director at Softlogic Group, was the first chief executive of Sampath Bank as well as Cargills Bank.

Perera should retire by August next year, in accordance with Central Bank regulations, after completing nine years as the chairman.

Meanwhile, the bank’s CEO Aravinda Perera is functioning on a service extension, and interviews have been conducted to recruit an outsider as soon as his contract is over.

Presently, Sampath Bank has 12 directors - Dhammika Perera (Chairman), Channa Palansuriya (Deputy Chairman), Sanjiva Senanayake (Senior Director), Deepal Sooriyaarachchi (Non Executive Director), Prof. Malik Ranasinghe (Non Executive Director), Dhara Wijayatilake (Non Executive Director), Annika Senanayake (Non Executive Director), Deshal de Mel (Non Executive Director), Ranil Pathirana (Non Executive Director), Saumya Amarasekera (Non Executive Director), Aravinda Perera (Managing Director) and Ranjith Samaranayake (Executive Director/Group Chief Financial Officer).