Category: Banking and Finance

Mar. 16 (LBO) – Deutsche Bank AG’s Colombo branch plans to scale up its presence here by luring big corporates and multinationals to use their state of the art cash management and electronic banking system. “We have no plans to do retail banking in Sri Lanka. But we want to grow our business by focusing […]

Mar. 14 (LBO) – The International Finance Corp. said Tuesday that they have tied up with four Sri Lankan banks to increase access to finance small and medium enterprises (SME) in the island. IFC, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, hopes the partnership with Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Hatton National […]

Mar13. (LBO) — Sri Lanka’s accountants have come up with a digital solution to combat the shortage of actuaries in the country. The solution involves the use of a standard model, which uses minimal subjective judgments and can be calculated on a software like Microsoft’s Office Excell. The acute shortage of actuaries in Sri Lanka […]

Mar. 09 (LBO) — State-run People’s Bank is negotiating with the treasury to replace over Rs.20 billion worth of restructuring bonds with tradable government treasuries, officials said Thursday. Around Rs. 10.54 billion worth of 30-year restructuring bonds were issued in April 1993, priced at 12 percent, with interest payable every six months, according to the […]

Mar. 08 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is pushing for greater access into the Indian banking industry when both countries meet for bilateral trade talks in May, industry sources said. Neighboring India recently streamlined capital requirements for banks entering into the country but there are still limitations on shareholder ownership and the number of branches that […]

Mar. 07 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Distilleries Group said Tuesday that they have picked up the controlling stake in the island’s pioneering unit trust management company, National Asset Management Ltd or NAMAL from DFCC Bank. The Distilleries Group, controlled by business tycoon Harry Jayawardena currently runs its own fund management unit called Aegis which largely […]

Mar. 07 (LBO) — The monetary board of Sri Lanka’s central bank is now short of one member as a procedural snag has held up the appointment of a replacement.The Monetary Board, which guides the country’s economic direction by setting policy interest rates now consists of Chairman (and Central Bank Governor) Sunil Mendis, Treasury Secretary […]

Mar.06 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank said Monday that it posted a 134 percent growth in post tax profits for the full-year ended December 2005. Group net profit for the full-year was Rs. 1.77 billion over Rs. 755 million reported in 2004 below market expectations of Rs. 2.0 billion. Net profits for the […]

Mar. 06 (LBO) – Commercial Bank of Ceylon has sought expertise of a foreign actuarial to structure a pension buyback scheme for employees, officials said Monday. Sri Lanka’s most profitable local commercial bank has taken this option to hedge risks against a future rise in interest rates. “Most pension plans in Sri Lanka are structured […]

Feb. 28 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sanasa Development Bank is looking for foreign money to bring its capital up to the new Central Bank core capital requirements. Corrected: accounting period -LBO Newsdesk: LBOEmail@ General Manager T A Gajaba says they are hoping to raise around Rs700 million from a consortium of foreign investors. Sanasa, a […]

Feb. 28 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is set to launch a new development bank in April to promote future reconstruction and development work, a top official said Tuesday. Known as the ‘Lanka Putra’, the government-owned specialised bank plans to raise deposits locally and overseas to fund small and medium scale entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. “The […]

Sri Lanka’s housing finance giant HDFC Bank reported a sharp drop in profits and profitability for the last quarter of 2005, on higher staff and interest costs and the state levied VAT payments. Value Added Tax (VAT) payments jumped to Rs. 23 million in the quarter to December 2005, up from Rs. 7.5 million in […]