Category: Banking and Finance

Feb 01, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tokyo Cement Company (Lanka) Ltd has been rated ‘A’ by Ram Ratings on its strong market position and balance sheet against its dependency on the cyclicality of construction and government price controls. The long term rating has a ‘stable’ outlook. The firm’s short term credit has been rate […]

Jan 31, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Merchant Bank will not take over the assets and liabilities of a finance company whose shares it has acquired but will keep it separate and list in the stock market. PMB, a listed company said in a stock exchange filing that the decision was taken following instructions […]

Jan 28, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s listed The Finance Company, which is in a restructuring drive under regulatory supervision said it had raised 1. 6 billion from a share sale which had been oversubscribed. The Finance Company, earlier managed by the Ceylinco group offered 40 million shares at 40 rupees to raise capital. Depositors […]

Jan 28, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank said it intended to give stock options of up to three million shares to employees as a performance incentive if the bank reaches as yet undisclosed performance for 2011. The shares issued under the option plan would be 2.0 percent of the existing shares and will […]

Jan 27, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Arpico Finance Company’s long-term rating has been confirmed at BB and its outlook lifted ‘positive’ from ‘stable’ on better asset quality and adequate capital, RAM Ratings said. Arpico Finance’s short-term rating has been confirmed at NP, RAM Ratings said. Outlook on the long-term rating has been revised to […]

Jan 26, 2011 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka chapter of US based Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) is promoting the adoption of Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) which is useful to attract foreign capital, an official said. The standards are checked by a ‘verifier’ usually an auditor. Rajiv Casie Chitty, the GIPS chair at CFA Sri […]

Jan 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s credit information office is planning a text message alert service by mobile phone for borrowers who forget to make credit card payments, an official said. The service is likely to be available by April. Sri Lanka has about four million borrowers. Gamini Karunaratne, general manager of the Sri […]

Jan 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will set up a common automated teller machine and payment card switch that will process transactions locally, eliminating the need for international routing of transactions between different banks, an official said. “Any firm registered outside Sri Lanka should have a local partner at the time of forwarding the […]

Jan 17, 2011 (LBO) – Credit to private citizens from Sri Lanka’s commercial banks rose 23. 1 percent in November 2010 from a year earlier, while credit to government also rose at a slower 10. 8 percent, official data showed. In November banks loaned 46.3 billion rupees to private borrowers, down slightly from 51. 4 […]

Jan 10, 2011 (LBO) – The Finance Company, is looking to raise 1.6 billion rupees of fresh capital is expecting to return to profits by March 2012 helped by lower interest rates and an improving land market, a senior official said. “Interest rates in Sri Lanka dropped and almost came to a single digit and […]

Jan 07, 2011 (LBO) – The Colombo Stock Exchange has approved an application by The Finance Company, a troubled financed firm that is recovering after a run, for a public share issue to raise 1. 6 billion rupees for fresh capital, a statement said. The firm will issue 40 million ordinary voting shares at 40 […]

Jan 07, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank will keep a closer eye on conglomerates with interest in banks and finance companies, governor Nivard Cabraal said. Financial institutions connected to diversified conglomerates can have greater risks, requiring higher degree of supervision, he said in a speech on the central bank’s monetary policy for 2011. […]