Category: Banking and Finance

July 01, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said People’s Leasing and Finance Plc, the island’s largest non-bank lender has been appointed managing agent for Central Investments and Finance Plc, which had seen liquidity issues.. “The Managing Agent will be expected to improve the financial status of CIFL within a reasonable period of time, […]

June 28, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Bank’s exposures to the state and state enterprises has gone up in 2012, and the lender plans to cut exposure to gold backed loans, Fitch Ratings said confirming its ‘AA+(lka)’ rating. The lender which accounts for 20 percent of banking assets, 23 percent of loans and 19 […]

BRUSSELS, June 27, 2013 (AFP) – European finance ministers on Thursday agreed a draft deal on new rules for bank rescues that will only allow bailouts by taxpayers in exceptional cases and shift the burden onto bank owners, creditors and large depositors.The Irish presidency said it hoped the new rules would be finalised by early […]

June 27, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank said it had inked a deal to raise 49 million US dollars from China Development Bank. Acting chief executive of Hatton National Bank, Jonathan Alles said it was the second loan given by CDB, indicating the confidence in the bank’s strength. State-run CDB has assets […]

June 27, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Leasing and Finance Plc, the island’s largest non-bank lender is studying investments in fast growing economies in South East Asia, shareholders were told.“We have already earmarked to penetrate into the growth centric Southeast Asia possibly Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia,” chief executive D P Kumarage said in the […]

June 26, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank was given a ‘B+’ rating by Standard and Poor’s Rating Services, ahead of a planned international fund raising. “The ratings on NDB reflect the bank’s satisfactory business and revenue diversification and adequate risk management practices,” S & P analyst Amit Pandey said in a statement. […]

June 26, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has cut the deposits that commercial banks have to keep with the central bank by 200 basis points to 6.0 percent to boost lending cut intermediation costs, the central bank said.The full statement is reproduced below Central Bank reduces Statutory Reserve Requirement (SRR) by 2 percentage points Since […]

June 26, 2013 (LBO) – A two percentage point cut in Sri Lanka’s bank reserve ratio to 6.0 percent will lower costs, expand funds available to be given as loans, allowing banks to bring down lending rates, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said.But the greater benefit will in the ongoing intermediate cost reduction and the […]

June 26, 2013 (LBO) – Netherlands-based Triodos Bank will take a 10 percent stake to join Bangladesh’s BRAC in building micro financier, Sri Lanka’s Lanka Orix group said after taking over a listed finance company. Triodos has operations in finance, fund management and renewable energy. LOLC and BRAC Wednesday took control of Nanda Investment and […]

June 24, 2013 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings said it had downgraded Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank by one level to ‘AA-(lka)’ amid greater retail lending. The agency also downgraded the bank’s outstanding subordinated redeemable debentures to ‘A+(lka)’. Both A+(lka) and AA-(lka) are in the investment grade. Project loans have reduced as a share of total […]

June 18, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank Plc said it had got 24 million US dollars through a 10-year loan from the International Finance Corporation, a multilateral lender which will be used to finance small businesses. “IFC’s investment brings the required long-term financing which will help NDB to promote the much needed […]

June 17, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s credit to private business fell to a three year low of 7.6 billion rupees in April 2013 the lowest since May 2010, with state borrowings continuing to crowd out other loans. Contractions in central bank credit help build up foreign reserves and keep the exchange rate strong but […]