Category: Banking and Finance

May 13, 2011 (LBO) – Bank of Ceylon, Sri Lanka’s biggest state-owned lender, said March 2011 quarter net profit shot up 163. 1 percent to almost 2.2 billion rupees from a year ago with interest income rising much faster than interest costs. Basic earnings per share rose 163.1 percent to 1,749 rupees, the bank’s interim […]

May 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank has changed plans to raise fresh capital by dropping a private placement and increasing a rights issue for existing shareholders, a stock exchange filing said. The amount of funds to be raised, to strengthen its capital and balance sheet and to support growth, has been […]

May 10, 2011 (LBO) – ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, has tied up with Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank to launch an online cross-border money transfer facility. The ‘Money2SriLanka’ facility (‘M2SL’) is a web-based online remittance platform which facilitates the sending of remittances from abroad to beneficiaries in Sri Lanka, a statement said. This […]

May 10, 2011 (LBO) – Bimputh Lanka Investments, a registered finance company in Sri Lanka, has been given regulatory approval to list on the Colombo stock exchange. The firm is to list 20.2 million ordinary voting shares on the CSE’s ‘Diri Savi’ second board through the ‘introduction’ process which does not require companies to make […]

May 10, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Union Bank said net profit rose 212 percent to 60 million rupees in the March 2011 quarter from a year ago with sharp gains in both interest and non-interest income. Interest income rose 7.5 percent to 458 million rupees while interest expenses fell 22 percent to 221 million […]

May 09, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Union Bank, which became a retail investor favourite after its recent listing, intends to go into new lines of business and add more branches as part of an expansion plan. “The bank expects this unique facility will enable to expand its network to the grass-root levels efficiently and […]

May 09, 2011 (LBO) – Mercantile Investments Limited (MIL), a registered finance company in Sri Lanka, has been given regulatory approval to list on the Colombo stock exchange. The firm is to list 3,006,000 ordinary voting shares on the CSE’s ‘Diri Savi’ second board through the ‘introduction’ process which does not require companies to make […]

May 06, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank said it plans to raise at least 15.07 billion rupees through a rights issue and private placement to strengthen its capital and balance sheet and to support growth. It intends to raise 10.5 billion rupees from the rights issue of one share for every six […]

May 05, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank said recipients of remittances through its e-Exchange facility will get SMS alerts when their accounts are credited. All recipients who have mobile connections from any mobile operator in Sri Lanka will be eligible to receive these alerts as and when a remittance is received, 24-hours-a-day, seven […]

Apr 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank group profits rose 63.8 percent to 980 million rupees in the March 2011 quarter, helped by provisional reversals and other income despite an easing of net interest income, interim accounts showed. The group reported earnings per share of 6.41 rupees for the quarter. Interest income fell […]

Apr 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank group net profits in the March 2011 quarter rose 27 percent to 195 million rupees from a year earlier, helped by loan loss provision reversals and steady margins on its fund book, interim accounts showed. The bank reported earnings per share of 3. 93 rupees for […]

Apr 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s banking regulator has imposed limits on commercial bank exposure to the stock market which has been among Asia’s top performing bourses in the last two years. New guidelines issued by the central bank limits bank lending to buy stocks to less than 05 percent of total loans, with […]