Category: Banking and Finance

December 14 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and the Asian Development Bank tied up a loan deal worth 210 million dollars on Thursday, to upgrade national highways and water sector. A loan package of 150 million dollars will be used to widen and rehabilitate a network of 350 kilometres of roads, including improving and replacing bridges, […]

December 14 (LBO) – Rating agency Fitch gave pawn brokering business Edirisinghe Trust Investments a ‘B+(lka)’ long term rating, but said the company was hampered by low profitability and weak management systems. The company was founded in 1967 by the Edirisinghe family and remains a closely held family company. ETI is a registered finance company […]

December 13 (LBO) – Slow global economic growth, lower reserve build up and politics will be in the spotlight for sovereign credit assessments in emerging Asia, including Sri Lanka, next year, rating agency Fitch said Wednesday. “For the region, Fitch forecasts a reserve build of USD300 billion next year, which would be slightly lower than […]

November 12, (LBO) – The Bank of Ceylon has given 43.7 percent of its loans to the government and state-owned enterprises, and its exposure to government would remain high or even increase, Fitch Ratings Lanka said Tuesday, as it affirmed the bank’s AA (lka) rating.“Furthermore such exposures also increase the linkage to the state’s financial […]

December 11, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s powerful treasury secretary P B Jayasundara, has sent in his resignation, the state-run Daily News reported Monday. The newspaper did not give a reason, but said Jayasundara will cease from running the day-to-day affairs of the finance ministry from December 31. Jayasundara is due to take up a […]

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 […]