Category: Banking and Finance

August 11, 2007 (LBO) – HSBC, Sri Lanka’s largest credit card issuer, has announced new technology to combat fraud but said its local acquiring network would be upgraded only in the first quarter of next year.In addition to the standard magnet strip, the new ‘smart’ cards issued from this month would have an embedded micro-processor […]

Aug 10, 2007 (LBO) – One of Sri Lanka’s top professionals in the fast-growing telecommunications industry has advised his peers to stay in the island despite problems, saying developing economies have more change and opportunity. “The General System of Preferences (GSP) scheme the state achieved was due to our ethical corporate behavior and very good […]

August 08, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank (HNB) group has reported a 35 percent increase in net profit to 682 million rupees for the second quarter ended June 2007 with provision for bad loans also increasing. The HNB group revenues were up 41 percent to 7.78 billion rupees, the bank said in […]

August 09, 2007 (LBO) – Trade finance involving shipment of goods by sea could lend itself to money laundering, a top international maritime fraud investigator has warned Sri Lanka’s shipping community. Companies involved in the transport of goods by sea and related business like banks should take more care in their transactions and know better […]

August 9, 2007 (LBO) – The United States has completed a program with a Sri Lanka state training institute to improve public sector finance skills of government officers, the US embassy in Colombo said. “U.S. Treasury focused on these objectives because of an urgent need to train young professionals in government service,” the embassy said […]

August 08, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said he will look at the banking sector’s reluctance to lend to ship-owners and called for new methods of financing that may allay the concerns of lenders. The island’s banks had hitherto been reluctant to provide ship financing as they were unfamiliar with […]

August 2, 2007 (LBO) – Eminent banker Pelanage Amarasinghe passed away on Wendesday August 01.He has served Sri Lanka’s banking sector for over 36 years as a central banker and later also in commercial banks. He retired from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka after becoming its Deputy Governor and was a former chairman of […]

August 02, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank reported net profit for the second quarter ended June 2007 shot up 52 percent to 1.1 billion rupees from 753 million in the same 2006 period. Net interest income for the quarter soared 66 percent to almost three billion rupees, according to interim results released to […]

July 31, 2007 (LBO) – The failed Pramuka Bank had been given the nod by the Central Bank to re-open for business from August 01, as the state owned Sri Lanka Savings Bank Ltd, the regulator said. The new bank will settle the liabilities of Pramuka to depositors and creditors according to a scheme to […]

July 30, 2007 (LBO) –The Sri Lanka unit of Rating Agency Malaysia (RAM) said Monday its operations will not be affected by a restructuring of the parent. Lanka Ratings Agency (LRA) said the credit ratings services and consultancy services of RAM had been separated under a regulatory requirement in Malaysia. RAM has been re-named RAM […]

July 30, 2007 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has downgraded the rating outlook of National Development Bank from ‘positive’ to ‘stable’ after a proposed merger with the Commercial Bank was aborted. NDB has an asset base of 65 billion rupees. National Development Bank, originally a development finance institution, merged with NDB Bank, its commercial banking subsidiary […]

June 29, 2007 (LBO) – Arpico Finance Company Limited has asked for more time to meet the new regulatory capital requirements of the Central Bank, the credit rating agency, Lanka Rating Agency (LRA) said. It said in a statement that it had reaffirmed Arpico Finance’s long- and short-term ratings at BB2 (with a stable outlook) […]