Workers’ bank for Sri Lanka

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 9

Workers’ bank for Sri Lanka

NZPA-Reuter Colombo A fund set up 56 vears ago by the wife of a British merchant will be used to set up a new kind of workers’ bank in Sri Lanka.

Lady Jane Lochore helped set up the fund in 1924’ to relieve indebtedness among workers and it proved so helpful that it was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1951. The fund, housed in a four-storey building in the heart of Colombo, is a mecca for Sri Lankan workers in debt.

The country’s Finance Minister (Mr Ronnie de Mel) wants to use the fund to help create workers’ banks which not only relieve debts but also seek to rehabilitate workers in financial trouble. Under the scheme worked Out by the fund, workers will be the only shareholders' in the banks.

Albert de Silva, managing trustee of the Lady. Lochore Fund, said the workers’ banks would emphasise. the social development of workers and their families. Each bank would have a built-in insurance scheme to ensure that on the death of a worker his shares and savings were automatically doubled and his debts wiped out. The banks would give loans for debt payment, taxes, medical expenses, pur--1 chases of equipment for the home, funerals weddings and for family needs. Mr de Silva said it was expected that more than a '■ million workers would bene- ■ fit from the scheme. Until, adequate funds were built up through workers’ contributions to the banks, : the fund would act as a buffer for loan demands. The services of' shareholders, directors and committee members would be voluntary, thus eliminating extensive employment overheads, he said. - Inquiries about the scheme were already flooding in from plantations, factories ■ and other quarters.