Category: Industry
Smooth Payments
July 06, 2007 (LBO) – South Asian countries need to modernise their payments systems to cope with rapidly increasing cross border trade and investment flows trigged by faster economic growth, a senior central banker said Friday. “Trade and investment flows and demand for financial services will exceed the present levels over the next couple of […]
No Deal
July 05, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s construction industry has successfully lobbied the government to defer the liberalisation of construction and related services under a free trade deal with India, an official said. The industry is not wholly against the idea of liberalising services but wants to protect local players until they are ready to […]
Joint Effort
July 05, 2007 (LBO) – Senior officials from South Asian central and commercial banks will meet in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo Friday to discuss the setting up of a regional payment system, the country’s central bank said. Officials of regional central banks as well as the World Bank and Bank for International Settlements are […]
Finance Probe
July 05, 2007 (LBO) – A presidential commission of inquiry probing the collapse of a string of finance companies in Sri Lanka has begun questioning Central Bank officials. The four-member commission comprising of senior legal and finance experts commenced sittings on July 2 and will hold its next sessions on July 6 and 13. The […]
Retail Collection
July 05, 2007 (LBO) – HSBC has tied up with Singer Sri Lanka, a household durables firm, to use its network of outlets to collects payments for credit card bill payments for cardholders outside the capital. HSBC customers can use 162 Singer outlets throughout the island to pay settle their bills. “Our intention was to […]
High Standards
July 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s freight forwarders are seeking new rules to improve standards in the trade after winning a court order that quashed a set of regulations proposed by government. “We did not see much policing in the proposed law,” Kadawatharatchie said. “There’s a need to punish rule breakers.” Niral Kadawatharatchie, chairman […]
BOT BPO
July 04, 2007 (LBO) – Aviva, one of the world’s biggest insurance firms, has hired over 300 Sri Lankan accounting and finance professionals into its business process outsourcing unit in Colombo. The professionals were trained on a build and transfer contract between Aviva Global Services (AGS) and Sri Lanka’s WNS, a third-party service provider for […]
Crawl Speed
July 04 (LBO) – Lengthy delays in automating Sri Lanka’s cargo clearing system were hurting the island’s chances of becoming a trading hub and making trading inefficient, a top freight forwarder said. “The automation of Sri Lanka’s cargo clearing system has not happened yet although it has been talked about for about five years,” said […]
Debt Capital
July 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sampath Bank has completed a debenture issue to raise 250 million rupees, the bank told the Colombo Stock Exchange. The money will strengthen the bank’s tier II capital base. The bank has a double AA- (lka) national long term rating from Fitch Ratings Lanka. Its debentures have previously been rated […]
Passing Bucks
July 04, 2007 (LBO) — Sri Lanka’s state-run oil firm Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has asked the treasury to pick up a six billion rupee subsidy tab for selling fuel to the Ceylon Electricity Board at a steep discount, officials said Wednesday. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), currently buys fuel at 55 rupees a litre from […]
Sri Lanka stretches the lead with flourishing strokeplay
July 4, 2007 (AFP) – Kumar Sangakkara hit an unbeaten 170 as Sri Lanka continued to flay Bangladesh on the second day of the second cricket Test against Bangladesh here on Wednesday. The hosts, who bowled out Bangladesh for a meagre 62 on the first day, moved from their lunch score of 267-2 to 385-5 […]
Bangladesh out for 62 domintaed by Sri Lankan attack
July 3, 2007 (AFP) – Bangladesh were shot out for their lowest Test score of 62 by Sri Lanka on the opening day of the second cricket Test at the P.Sara stadium here on Tuesday. Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan claimed four wickets each as Bangladesh fell below their previous low of 86, also against […]