Category: Banking and Finance

July 24, 2010 (LBO) – A start-up Sri Lankan bank that has just raised 3.2 billion rupees in capital through a private placement wants to lure Middle Eastern funds and lend for infrastructure projects, an official said. Amana Bank is part of Sri Lanka’s Amana Islamic finance group that already has insurance and merchant banking […]

July 23, 2010 (LBO) – Amana Bank Limited, a start up Sri Lankan firm which had provisional approval from the regulator to become a bank, said it had raised 3.2 billion in capital through a private placement. A tombstone placed in The Daily Mirror newspaper said the firm had raised 3,159 million rupees by selling […]

July 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government is to set up a dedicated authority to regulate micro-finance institutions to make their supervision more effective, a government minister said. A previous effort to regulate micro-finance institutions in 2006 through the central bank was abandoned because a separate, independent authority was considered more appropriate. Micro finance […]

July 21, 2010 (LBO) – New York based Logan Rockefeller Global (LR Global) is planning to invest 20 million US dollars in Sri Lanka through a newly set up local unit, which itself is planning a public listing as early as next year, officials said. “We are looking at Sri Lanka as a market that […]

July 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank group net profit shot up 66 percent to 312 million rupees in the June 2010 quarter from a year ago as interest margins improved, a stock exchange filing said. Deposits and performing loans grew slightly and the bank managed to reduce bad loans. Interest income fell […]

July 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Regional Development Banks (RDBs) are to merge, getting access to foreign funds, and diversify from agriculture into other areas like tourism and lend in the former north-east war zone, officials said. The single entity created from the merger will help reduce costs and improve operating efficiency. “Operating […]

July 16, 2010 (LBO) – A credit guarantee scheme introduced by Sri Lanka’s central bank has become operational with a finance company making use of the first liquidity facility this week, a statement said. “The Central Bank is actively encouraging the speedy utilization of the scheme by the RFCs and the respective banks,” it said. […]

July 13, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s loans to private borrowers rose by 7. 7 billion rupees in May 2010 but the state borrowed more than double that amount from commercial banks to support its deficit spending, official data showed. Excessive state borrowing that appropriates people’s savings at high rates has been the most important […]

July 13, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s finance companies which are facing liquidity shortages will get new credit under a central bank guarantee scheme with the first facility going to a firm this week, the regulator said. “Through the resumption and revival of their normal business, the RFCs are expected to be able to meet […]

July 8, 2010 (LBO) – Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka, a unit of state-run Bank of Ceylon, may need to inject new capital into a troubled savings bank and insurance firm it bought during an economic downturn, a rating agency said. RAM ratings confirmed Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka’s (MBSL) ‘AA-‘ domestic long term rating […]

July 7, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Lanka Orix Leasing Company will expand credit to war torn northern and eastern areas of the country armed with a credit line from the French government, officials said. PROPARCO, the private sector funding arm of the French foreign aid agency gave a 10 million euro credit line to […]

July 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank is to open an office in northern Jaffna where it could help with loans and be a catalyst for the economic revival of the region after a war, a statement said. It will be the banking regulator’s fourth provincial office complementing others in the southern, north-central […]