Category: Banking and Finance

December 8, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Friday gave banks extra time till 2009 to top up their capital by five times, the Central Bank said, as some banks have fallen short of meeting a deadline set earlier. In April 2005, monetary authorities set the capital minimum capital limit for commercial banks’ at 2.5 billion […]

December 08, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition party has said the government should investigate suspected money laundering transactions in the Colombo Stock Exchange, when the vote on the finance ministry’s budget was taken up in parliament this week. UNP Parliamentarian Bandula Gunawardene, a former deputy finance minister said Sri Lanka is gaining a […]

December 07, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s NDB Bank Thursday teamed up with global money transfer giant Western Union, to tap the lucrative foreign remittances market, officials said. Around 1.5 million Sri Lankans working and residing overseas sent home 1,918 million dollars last year, and the island’s Central Bank expects the figure to hit 3.0 […]

Dec 06 (LBO) – A holding company that controls Sri Lanka’s largest footwear maker DSI, is to issue a 300 million rupee debenture which has been rated BBB+ (lka), Fitch Ratings Lanka said Wednesday. Fitch says the company DSI Holdings which also has a national long term rating of BBB+ may increase the size of […]

December, 06 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s treasury bill rates moved up by an average of 19 basis points at this Wednesday’s auction on the back of a similar hike last week, in what analysts view as a steady response by the Central Bank to tighten monetary policy and curb demand pressure. However the Central Bank […]

Nov 27, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s audit examiners will stop visiting government offices to carry out audit work following on a pay dispute, putting the brakes on the country’s already slow auditing process. “The most important aspect of the state audit mechanisms is the audit examination,” the Union said in a statement. “We wish […]

Nov 24, 2006 (LBO) – An old-established family footwear company from the deep south of Sri Lanka, has published its credit rating, before entering the country’s debt markets through a debenture issue. The group’s origins dates back to the 1930’s and have interests in information technology, power generation and food processing. The holding company of […]

Nov 22, 2006 (LBO) – Government attempts to retain more re-insurance at home may reduce the quality of the cover available from the industry and concentrate too much risk in one geographical location, an international risk analyst has warned. Top local firms were now placing risks with re-insurers with ratings of A- or higher, but […]

November, 20 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee dipped to a new low of 109.40 against the dollar early Monday, while shares also closed weaker. The rupee strengthened later to 108.70 with state banks intervening to prop it up, dealers said. The rupee had been under pressure from the second quarter as the government stepped […]

Nov 20, 2006 (LBO) – The Ceylinco group tied up Monday with Malaysia’s Centre for Islamic Finance to set up a faculty for Islamic financial studies in Sri Lanka. The Ceylinco Sussex Business School will roll out a Certified Islamic Finance Program locally, to meet a growing demand for trained professionals in Islamic finance, expected […]

Nov 20 (LBO) – Seylan Merchant Bank said Monday it would float ten year listed debentures to raise long term funds to match its lending portfolio. The 95 million rupee debenture issue would be the first long-term listed debt instrument in the local market, opening for subscription on November 27, the company said in a […]

November 17, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka said Thursday they were exploring the possibility of setting up a 40 million dollar government guaranteed fund with World Bank assistance, to encourage private investment in the war torn north and east, officials said. Mooted under the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency or MIGA arm of the World Bank, […]