Category: Banking and Finance

Sept 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank is cutting costs and focusing on recoveries to put the bank back on a stronger financial footing, members of an interim board appointed by the regulator said. At bank level gross loans were 101.8 billion and bad loans were 32.1 billion rupees. Seylan reported 187.8 million […]

Sept 06, 2009 (LBO) – A 54.2 million sale of fresh voting shares in Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank to raise 1.9 billion rupees, after it was put under new management by regulators, has attracted the interest of foreign funds, a top official said. The Ceylinco group controlled the bank through its own shares as well […]

Sept 04, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Asian Finance Ltd, and Ceylinco Investment and Realty Ltd, two firms of the troubled Ceylinco group will be put under a new managing agent, the Central Bank said. MBSL has been asked to “restore their normal business operations to strengthen the viability of the companies,” by the regulator. […]

Sept 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Fitch Ratings has confirmed the ‘AAA(lka)’ rating of state-run National Savings Bank (NSB), with a ‘stable’ outlook. “The rating reflects NSB’s state ownership, systemic importance, the low risk nature of most of its asset base and explicit guarantee from the Government of Sri Lanka on its deposits,” Fitch […]

Sept 03, 2009 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has confirmed HSBC Sri Lanka’s long term national Long-term rating at ‘AAA(lka)’ with a ‘stable’ outlook, on the strength of its parents ‘AA/negative outlook’ rating. HSBC Sri Lanka is a branch of Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Hong Kong’s largest banking group and is wholly-owned by HSBC […]

Sept 03, 2009 (LBO) – Citibank Sri Lanka has transferred billions of rupees of losses from a defaulted derivative deal with a state-run oil retailer to a foreign unit and the local branch has retained its ‘AAA(lka)’ rating, Fitch Ratings said. At end-December 2008, the top 20 loans had accounted for 93.1 percent of total […]

Sept 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said it has issued new instructions to banks to put assets unclaimed by customers for a long period to an account in the Central Bank. All licensed commercial banks holding any abandoned property are required to inform the banking regulator each year and transfer such monies […]

Sept 02, 2009 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings said it has confirmed HSBC Sri Lanka’s (HSBCSL) National Long-term rating at ‘AAA(lka)’ with a stable outlook.In addition to conservative write-off policies adopted for unsecured consumer NPLs, HSBCSL’s provisioning is more prudent, with specific provision covering 69 percent of NPLs at FYE08. Profitability as measured by ROA (return […]

Aug 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Nation Savings Bank (NSB) profits for the 6-months to June were up 207.8 percent on capital gains on government bonds held for trading, when market interest rates fell, officials said. “We were able to take the market opportunity when the rates came down and we made a […]

Aug 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s corporate debt market is generating green shoots with rates coming down, lenders gaining confidence and credit spreads narrowing, officials said.“We are seeing the first securitizations transactions after the absence of more than six to eight months,” says Ajith Fernando, head of Capital Alliance Holdings. “Corporate debt markets are […]

Aug 29, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Citibank, which had reported around 22 billion rupees of bad loans following a defaulted derivative sold to a state-run oil distributor, has taken the number off its balance sheet in the June 2009 accounts.In March 2008, the bank reported 22.6 billion rupees classified as ‘other loans’ among non-performing […]

Aug 28, 2009 (LBO) – RAM Ratings Lanka has upgraded the long-term rating of LB Finance (LBF) by one notch to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘ with a ‘stable’ outlook and its short term ‘P3’ rating has been confirmed. LBF’s return on assets (ROA) rose to 4.49 percent by March 2009 (end-March 2008: 4.01 percent) and return […]