Category: Banking and Finance

Oct 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said Monday that cheque returns were too high and warned customers that issuing cheques without funds was an offence. The total value of returned cheques in a day is “substantial”, amounting to over half a billion rupees, a bank statement said. Out of the total number […]

Oct 05, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-owned Peoples’ Bank (PB) is on track to get a credit upgrade if its capital is boosted to regulatory requirements, Fitch Ratings Lanka has said after confirming the bank’s A- (lka) rating. The bank was in line to get a billion rupee capital injection from the state in […]

Oct 01, 2007 (LBO) – Aureos South Asia Fund (ASAF) has invested five million dollars in an Apollo hospital in Bangladesh, the South Asian focused investment fund said. The Bangladesh Taka 343 million injection goes to STS Holdings, which owns the Apollo Hospital in the country. The investment will boost STS Holdings’ plans for further […]

Sept 27, 2007 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka which confirmed the AAA (lka) national rating of Citibank’s Sri Lanka branch said its interest margins were boosted by dollar financing of the island’s government. In the first half of the year net interest margins and forex gains had allowed pretax profits to improve to 2.7 percent […]

Sept 25, 2007 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund which has warned of further fallouts from the sub-prime crisis has called on credit evaluators to use a new rating scale to describe default risks of asset-backed securities. Now asset-backed debt products or securitized instruments use the same rating scale that is used from straightforward bonds […]

Sept 24, 2007 (LBO) – ICICI Bank, India’s second-largest bank, is planning to demonstrate in Sri Lanka its smart card technology that helped create innovative products and take banking to rural India, even to illiterate farmers, a top official said. Chanda Kochhar, Deputy Managing Director of ICICI Bank, said its technology partner Financial Information Network […]

Sept 23, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has urged the banking community to reach out to the rural poor saying the move would not only help impoverished farmers but enrich the banks themselves. The government and the banking community should aim to improve financial inclusion for vulnerable sections and […]

Sept 22, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan chief financial officer’s job has become more challenging but the position retains its strategic importance and provides the best stepping stone to the top in the corporate sector, a senior executive said. “It is the same old role which most of our finance professionals are not playing […]

Sept 20, 2007 (LBO) –Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank said it was going ahead with a plan to raise new debt to beef up its capital base and meet Central Bank requirements. A bank statement said it plans to make a public quoted issue of unsecured subordinated redeemable five-year debentures the details of which are to […]

Sept 19, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankans traveling abroad can apply for international health insurance introduced by Aviva Insurance that will cover the cost of medical care abroad, officials said Wednesday. The insurance plans offered by Aviva’s local partner Eagle Insurance go up to two million dollars in annual coverage. They cover health costs whether […]

Sept 19, 2007 (LBO) – Nations Trust Bank said Wednesday it remains the sole issuer of American Express credit cards and other travel services despite the sale of the latter’s international banking subsidiary to Standard Chartered PLC. American Express Company has announced that it has sold its subsidiary, American Express Bank Ltd. (AEB), to Standard […]

Sept 18, 2007 (LBO) – Bad debts in Sri Lanka’s banks are rising and loan to deposit ratios are deteriorating as the lagged effects of a credit bubble driven by loose monetary policy are beginning to be felt, the latest emerging data shows. Loan growth last year was 29 percent and has slowed slightly to […]