P Samarasiri has functioned as an Assistant Governor in the Central Bank over the previous six and half years, and while holding such post, he has also functioned as the Secretary to the Monetary Board of the Central Bank for the past four and half years. He also serves as the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board and as the Vice Chairman of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka. Further, he held the positions of the Compliance Officer and Secretary to the Monetary Board Advisory Audit Committee of the Central Bank. Prior to being promoted as an Assistant Governor in December 2007, he was the Director of the Bank Supervision Department.
Samarasiri joined the Central Bank as a Staff Officer in January 1983 after graduating from the University of Colombo with a BA Degree (Hons) in Economics. In 1991, he obtained an MA in Economics from the University of Kansas, USA, under the scholarship scheme offered by the Central Bank. Accordingly, he now counts 31 years of experience in Central Banking, particularly in the areas of statistics, economic policies, regulation and supervision of banks and non-bank financial institutions, financial system stability, corporate governance, currency management, foreign exchange policies, financial intelligence and regional development. Mr Samarasiri has also represented the Central Bank at several international seminars and conferences conducted by the World Bank, IMF, other Central Banks, financial sector regulators and international financial institutions.
He has authored three book, ““මුදල් ගනුදෙනු, බැංකු සහ ආර්ථිකය” (Financial transactions, Banks and Economy) in August, 2010, “මූලික ආර්ථික විද්යා මූලධර්ම විග්රහය” (Analysing principles of basic economic science) in November 2011 and “ආර්ථික විද්යා මූලධර්ම ප්රතිපත්ති” (Basic Principles of Economic Science) in March 2013 published by the Central Bank. The first two books have also been published in the Tamil language. In addition, he has published several articles on economic and financial topics in various publications and newspapers and has conducted numerous seminars and special presentations in various forms.(KH/SI)
