Category: Banking and Finance

Oct 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka finance ministry would issue a circular directing state banks to cut lending rates and there was a possibility of private banks being also directed to cut lending rates through the island’s monetary authority, a government minister said.Sri Lanka’s powerful president Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered state bank to cut lending […]

Oct 29, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run People’s Bank said it was cutting lending rates for a range of sectors following a presidential directive to give loans at rates between 8.0 to 12.0 percent. The bank said in a statement Wednesday that it will cut lending rates with “immediate effect” following President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s […]

Oct 29, 2009 (LBO) – State banks were scrambling to give effect to an order to cut lending rates, but their balance sheets of state banks are likely to be hurt despite depositors taking some of the cost, officials said. Peoples’ Bank has a high proportion of pawning or gold backed loans. Savings depositors in […]

Oct 28, 2009 (LBO) – HSBC, an international bank, which said it had helped raise two billion dollars for Sri Lankan infrastructure has been named the best international debt house in Asia in awards given by Euromoney, a financial magazine.The bank said so far this year date, the HSBC Group has done 22 deals in […]

Oct 28, 2009 (LBO) – Commercial Bank of Ceylon said it had been appointed as the second bank to settle payments for securities trades in the Colombo Stock Exchange, following a decision by the bourse to expand the number of banks offering the service.The stock exchange has an automated trading and a central depository system […]

Oct 27, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered a sweeping 700 basis point cut in state bank lending rates, lifting of penal rates and fast-tracking state worker loan applications, a government statement said.Officials had also discussed ways to relax security requirements of loans, the statement said. Banks were also ordered to […]

Oct 26, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s listed Seylan Bank group has reported profits of 397.7 million rupees, up 292 percent from a year earlier, while its loan book continued to shrink and some provisions were reversed. Group interest income fell 10.9 percent to 5.9 billion rupees, while interest expense fell 17.1 percent to 5.2 […]

Oct 24, 2009 (LBO) – Uthum Herat, the deputy governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank, a deeply respected and much-loved official who has served the country for 27 years had passed away, the Central Bank said.Herat, 51 had passed away on October 23, at a private hospital in Colombo. The full Central Bank statement is […]

Oct 22, 2009 (LBO) – RAM Ratings Lanka said it has assigned long- and short-term financial institutions rating of A and P1 to Sri Lanka’s State Mortgage and Investment Bank (SMIB). “The ratings are primarily based on the state ownership of the bank, tempered by the wide asset-liability maturity mismatch (ALMM) inherent in its business […]

Oct 21, 2009 (LBO) –Sri Lanka’s The Finance Company (TFC), a former unit of the troubled Ceylinco Group, said it made a 2.5 billion rupee loss in 2008, owing to a slump in property prices and a run on deposits. TFC said in a statement the company had been adversely affected by the high profile […]

Oct 15, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Merchant Bank (PMB), an investment bank which is 39 percent owned by state-run People’s Bank, said it will acquire a finance company license by taking over a subsidiary.PMB said in a stock exchange filing that it has decided to take over the assets and liabilities of its […]

Oct 08, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-owned National Savings Bank (NSB) had exceeded its 2009 deposit mobilization target of 30 billion rupees by the end of the third quarter, a senior official said. “So far we have achieved 38 billion rupees and we expect it will exceed 40 billion rupees at year’s end,” H […]