Category: Banking and Finance

October 27, 2006 (LBO) – Amana Takaful Ltd., a specialized Islamic insurance company, plans to list 12.5 million shares on the Colombo Stock Exchange by way of an introduction. Priced at 10.00 rupees each, the shares will be listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange’s secondary board. There will be no public issue of shares, CSE’s […]

Oct 28 (LBO) – Rating agency Fitch Lanka affirmed DFCC Vardhana Bank’s AA-(lka) national long term rating on Friday, on the strength of parent company DFCC Bank. The principal factor supporting the rating of DFCC Vardhana Bank (DVB) is the strong implied support assumed to be available from its parent, DFCC Bank, Fitch Ratings Lanka […]

October 25, 2006 (LBO) – A Ponzi-style fraud that was masquerading as an internet based outsourcing company, shut up shop Wednesday, leaving thousands of Sri Lankan defrauded of millions of rupees. Mt. Lavinia police said the operators, who ran a company called Seagullsoftwares have fled the office and they had no idea how many people […]

October 19, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s People’s Bank, has tied up with global money transfer giant Western Union, to enable their customers to remit funds to their families here. “This is a 240-250 billion dollar market and we have around 16 percent of market share in this field,” Kapur said. Over a million Sri […]

October 12, 2006 (LBO) – Sampath Bank may be a possible takeover target once again, when the small bank moves to amend its articles and allow a single shareholder to own a bigger stake, an equity research report said Thursday. Sampath has no controlling shareholder, but businessmen Dammika Perera and his related companies control around […]

Oct 12 2006 (LBO) – The Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL) will award more than 600 student members certificates at the eleventh convocation with students flocking to qualify as bankers, officials say. The only institute that is empowered by an Act of parliament to provide banking training in Sri Lanka has over 9,000 […]

October 11, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank Ltd is seeking shareholder approval to raise it’s authorise share capital and lift the maximum shareholder limits to be on par with Central Bank guidelines. The bank’s authorised share capital stands at 1.5 billion rupees and the board is seeking shareholders’ consent through an extraordinary meeting […]

October 9, 2006 (LBO) – Unions affiliated to Sri Lankan state banks are pressing for a second pension for staff who joined after 1996, though existing pension funds are short by billions of rupees. Prior to 1996, all state bank employees were given a pension, besides the statutory Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees Trust […]

Oct 5, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka plans to increase overall defence spending by 45 percent in calendar 2007 amid an upsurge in fighting between security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels, officials figures showed Thursday.The government’s initial budget estimates placed before parliament forecast defence spending would rise to 139.55 billion rupees (1.39 billion dollars) from […]

October 1, 2006 (LBO) – In another twist to the continuing GoldQuest controversy, remaining officials of the anti-pyramiding unit, that probed the GoldQuest case have been transferred for better career prospects, and to complete other urgent work, senior central bank officials said. “We established the Unit to carry out investigations without disrupting the work of […]

September 29, 2006 (LBO) – Commercial Bank of Ceylon secured a AA(lka) for its upcoming 1.5 billion rupee debenture, with Fitch Ratings asking the bank to match its growth with capital. Sri Lanka’s biggest private bank in terms of assets, Commercial Bank is raising debt with maturities ranging from 5-10 years to meet upcoming expansion […]

September 28, 2006 (LBO) — The Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA) and top state bank officials are due to present a comprehensive proposal to the President to make state banks more competitive. According to the SEMA, the Peoples’ Bank pension fund is short of 8.3 billion rupees, Bank of Ceylon 2.5 billion rupees and NSB […]