Category: Banking and Finance

Apr 01, 2011 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka has raised Ceylease Financial Services’ rating outlook to stable from negative and confirmed its ‘BB+(lka)’ rating. CFS’s total assets amounted to 1.5 billion rupees in 2010. The outlook revision reflects CFS’s improving financial profile, underpinned by better credit controls and more stringent recovery efforts, a statement said. […]

Mar 30, 2011 (LBO) – A director of Sri Lanka’s listed Commercial Bank of Ceylon has stepped down amid pressure from the state, deepening a controversy over recent appointment of state-connected officials to private listed banks. State funds hold large stakes in HNB. But a bank filing said the two directors were “non-executive/independent. ” Commercial […]

Mar 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka expects to devise Islamic finance specific regulations this year following ongoing consultations with the industry, though the first commercial bank on alternative finance has been licensed on existing rules, an official said. At the moment a commercial bank operating on Islamic finance principles has no income earning asset […]

Mar 29, 2011 (LBO) – The International Finance Corporation (IFC) said it will provide a five million US dollar trade-finance facility to Sri Lanka’s Union Bank of Colombo. The funds will help boost international trade opportunities for the bank and its small-business and corporate-sector clients. “The trade-finance facility will provide the Union Bank of Colombo […]

Mar 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Merchant Bank, a listed company, said it will sell People’s Merchant Finance Company Ltd, a 99 percent owned registered finance company, for 430 million rupees. The firm will be sold to Capital Alliance Holdings, an investment banking firm, if regulatory approval is given, PMB said in a […]

Mar 28, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka loans to business from commercial banks rose 28.1 percent in January 2011 from a year earlier to 1,530 billion rupees, central bank data showed as inflation concerns also rose in the island. Under Sri Lanka’s flawed monetary law, which critics say has made the country prone to high […]

Mar 25, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s NDB Bank has joined a World Bank credit scheme to channel low cost loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through eight lending institutions. SMEs with an annual turnover of less than 300 million rupees operating in a large number of sectors are eligible to apply under concessionary […]

Mar 25, 2011 (LBO) – Fresh capital will soon be given to the remaining Sri Lankan finance companies that got into trouble two years ago, prompting intervention by the banking regulator, senior central bank officials said. “It has taken over two years but was much quicker than the liquidation process.” Strategic investors have been found […]

Mar 25, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s banking regulator plans to limit exposure of banks to the stock market to prevent the risk of a downturn in equities affecting the financial sector, a senior central bank official said. Samarasiri, who spoke at a public forum on how the central bank revived finance companies that collapsed […]

Mar 22, 2011 (LBO) – Senkadagala Finance, a closely-held registered finance company, was allowed to trade on Colombo’s Stock Exchange on March 22, but there were no deals despite offers going up to ten times its net asset value, dealers said. The CSE is shortly to bring minimum ‘free float’ limits for listed companies to […]

Mar 21, 2011 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka has assigned Senkadagala Finance Company’s (SFC) proposed senior unsecured redeemable listed debentures of up to a billion rupees a ‘BBB+(lka)’ rating. The company was established in 1968 by the Balasuriya family, who owns 90 percent of SFC’s equity. The agency has simultaneously confirmed SFC’s National Long-Term rating […]

Mar 19, 2011 (LBO) – Top organizations representing Sri Lanka’s lawyers and accountants have brought together experts in Islamic finance to broaden understanding of one of the faster growing niches in the financial sector. The program will introduce the concept deal with equity investments, accounting for Islamic finance, corporate governance, the regulatory framework, legal and […]