Category: Banking and Finance

August 2, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Wednesday said balances of dormant accounts taken over by can be claimed back by their rightful owners. According to bankers there are around 30 million dollars worth of unclaimed property and goods waiting to be claimed. In July the government announced it was taking possession of […]

July 26, 2006 (LBO) – Hatton National Bank, the island’s second biggest privately owned lender by assets, Wednesday posted a net profit of 506.46 million rupees for the three months to June, up 48 percent from 343.09 million rupees in the same period last year. For the six months to June, the group’s income rose […]

July 24 (LBO) – Lanka Ratings Agency (LRA) has given a BBB3 rating to the deposit-taking finance company LB Finance. LRA said it had a favourable view of a management change since 2003, who had managed to improve the company’s asset quality and performance though the company still lagged the industry on both counts. LB […]

COLOMBO, July 12, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka announced Wednesday it would seize an estimated 30 million dollars in dormant bank accounts as part of a drive to clean up commercial bank books. Monetary authorities will use a provision under the Banking Act relating to “abandoned property” to access the dormant funds, Upali de Silva, […]

July 7, 2006 (LBO) – A parliamentary body which oversees public finances, plans to bring a law to beef up the office of Sri Lanka’s Auditor General, a senior legislator said. Meanwhile a parliamentarian has made statements claiming to be from another report due to be tabled shortly, that 360 billion rupees have disappeared to […]

July 6, 2006 (LBO) – A top Sri Lankan housing bank has asked the government to exempt housing mortgage lenders from upcoming law aimed at helping smaller defaulters, as it will curtail the growth of the entire housing loan market.HDFC Bank, a publicly listed bank originally set up by the government, is facing the threat […]

July 3, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Credit Information Bureau or CRIB has warned all banks to come clean and name large scale defaulters or risk paying a fine or prison term. Central Bank’s deputy governor Ranee Jayamaha says CRIB has warned errant banks to expect a fine of 50,000 rupees each for not disclosing […]

July 2, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has several unused credit lines awaiting disbursement, while small and medium industrialists complain that they cannot get loans. The Money Report talked to Lionel Somaratne, a veteran development banker who has been hired by the International Finance Corporation help improve SME access to finance and also improve the […]

July 2, 2006 (LBO) – A senior central banker has strongly criticized the practice of banks of not reporting influential defaulting clients to the Credit Information Bureau (CRIB). Some banks have also started giving multiple identity card numbers of certain clients to the CRIB, in order to avoid being black listed by the credit information […]

June 29, 2006 (LBO) – Small Sri Lankan banks are facing the threat of weaker credit ratings, following a government move to lift a law that allows banks to speed-up foreclosure on assets pledged against smaller loans.But state banks are excluded from the project.Bankers have already warned that the move to stop parate execution – […]

June 28, 2006 (LBO) – A collective agreement covering the salaries and benefits of the state bank employees is due to be signed Thursday, Sri Lanka’s largest bank employees union said. After two-years training, the government has agreed to absorb the trainees into the permanent cadre, main union said.More than 20,000 state-bank employees would get […]

June 27, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Tuesday launched a new state-own development bank aimed at assisting small and medium scale entrepreneurs. The Lankaputhra Development Bank, kicked off with 1.5 billion rupee seed capital from the treasury, with a further 2.0 billion rupees expected from the Private Sector Infrastructure Development Fund. “We […]