Category: Banking and Finance

PALM BEACH, December 16, 2008 (AFP) – The crime scene, according to prosecutors, is the 17th floor of a stately New York office building, where Bernard Madoff may have engineered the most costly investment swindle in history.But nowhere was the deception felt more personally than in Palm Beach, Florida, the small and affluent island community […]

MADRID, December 15, 2008 (AFP) – European banks were counting at the weekend the damage from the investment scandal involving New York trader Bernard Madoff, with Spain’s largest bank Santander saying a subsidiary may have lost more than three billion dollars.Madoff is alleged to have lost 50 billion dollars of investors’ money in a giant […]

Dec 13, 2008 (LBO) – With recessionary fears looming the need to secure one’s financial future has become even more important, though recent double digit inflation is eating almost all the disposable income of most average Sri Lankan, says a top analyst. You will have to go about setting a plan to achieve that objective. […]

Dec 10, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s public listed Commercial Bank of Ceylon says it has sought legal advice over a derivative deal with state-run People’s Bank which was sold to a state petroleum distributor. Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has halted payments to banks which provided a complex derivative to state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation after […]

HONG KONG, December 8, 2008 (AFP) – Global banking giant HSBC has set up a 5 billion US dollar fund to help small and medium sized businesses get access to credit during the global financial crisis, the bank said.The fund represents money “over and above” what the London-based bank would normally lend in the current […]

Dec 08, 2008 (LBO) – The effects of a payment halt on derivatives by a state-run oil distributor is spreading far into Sri Lanka’s banking sector, hurting capital, interbank transaction integrity and international relationships, market participants say.Two weeks ago, CPC chairman Ashantha de Mel said outstanding exposures of Citibank to CPC were 400,000 barrels, Standard […]

Dec 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank says its liability to a counterparty under an exotic derivative deal arranged for state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) is 982 million rupees, after payments were suspended by court. Commercial Bank of Ceylon said the contract, based on WTI crude would expire on June 30, 2009 and […]

Dec 05, 2008 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka has confirmed Sri Lanka’s Vallibel Finance Ltd’s (VFL) national long-term rating at ‘B+’ with a stable outlook. The rating agency said Vallibel Finance’s profit margins had recovered after narrowing last year but noted that its bad loans had increased although its lending had shifted from three-wheelers to […]

Dec 05, 2008 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka has assigned a ‘BB+)’ national long-term rating to Pan Asia Banking Corporation’s (PABC) proposed unsecured, redeemable five-year subordinated debenture issue of up to 150 million rupees. At the same time, the agency said in a statement it confirmed PABC’s national long-term rating at ‘BBB-‘ with a stable […]

Dec 04, 2008 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has cut the outlook of Sri Lanka’s The Finance Company (TFC) from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ but confirmed its investment grade ‘BBB(lka)’ long term national rating. As a result, TFC’s portfolio growth was just 9 percent in the 2008 financial year from 33 percent the year before while cash […]

Dec 04, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nations Trust Bank (NTB) has raised one billion rupees through a 5-year private placement, an official said. The unsecured subordinated redeemable debenture would boost its tier two capital adequacy ratio. The bank issued 100 million debentures with a face value of 100 rupees paying 21 percent a year. […]

Dec 02, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank has launched chip-embedded credit cards in a bid to outsmart credit card fraudsters who are increasingly targeting the country, officials said. Countries like Malaysia which had become credit card ‘hot spots’ had managed to fight off fraud with computer chip-embedded ‘smart’ cards. “Due to chip technology […]