Category: Banking and Finance

Sept 23, 1010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has asked banks to cut interest rates on housing loans to 14.0 percent and interest on credit cards to 24 percent by end-October following steep policy rates cuts and lower economic risks. The monetary authority, which is also the bank regulator, said rates on other loans […]

Sep 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run National Savings Bank (NSB) has inked inked a deal with a financial partner in Jordan as part of a bid to expand its remittance business tenfold over two years, officials said. NSB announced a deal with JRM Alami and Partners Exchange Company in Jordan Monday to help […]

Sept 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s NDB Aviva Wealth Management, a unit of Sri Lanka’s NDB Bank and UK’s Aviva has launched four mutual funds that can be easily customized to suit the investment needs of individual savers, officials said. The mutual funds could also be backed by bank fixed deposits from NDB Bank […]

Sept 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s The Finance Company (TFC) reduced losses to 431 million rupees in the June 2010 quarter compared with a loss of 693 million rupees the year before, a stock exchange filing said. Interest income fell 42 percent to 660 million rupees while interest expenses fell 45 percent to 814 […]

ZURICH, September 12, 2010 (AFP) – Banks will be required to lift their reserves substantially under “landmark” new rules drawn up Sunday by central bankers and regulators seeking to prevent a repeat of the recent financial crisis. The new regulations, called Basel III, would force banks to more than triple their current reserves and would […]

Sept 10, 2010 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka has confirmed Merchant Credit of Sri Lanka Ltd’s (MCSL) National Long-term rating at ‘BBB(lka)’ with a stable outlook, a statement said. The affirmation reflects the implied support from MCSL’s main shareholder and Sri Lanka’s largest bank – state-owned Bank of Ceylon, rated ‘AA(lka)’/Stable, it said. “Fitch believes […]

Sept 09, 2010 (LBO) – Branches of state banks in Sri Lanka’s war-torn northern and eastern areas topped the lists for giving loans under central bank supported credit schemes for rural agriculture development. Central Banks in high inflation countries including Zimbabwe have engaged in such quasi-fiscal activities starting many agriculture credit schemes. Central Bank ‘re-finance’ […]

Sept 08, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank does not see a need to cut rates next week, following two rates cuts over two months, a media report has suggested. In 2009 private credit shrank as the government ran a deficit of around 10 percent of gross domestic product. The government has promised to […]

Sept 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will increase minimum capital requirements of banks to increase their resilience to shocks and also require unlisted private banks to list on the Colombo bourse, the Central Bank said. This was to meet “the need for enhancing the ability of banks to raise additional capital in a more […]

Sept 02, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Acuity and Millennium Capital Management (MCM) Holdings of Maldives is partnering to provide investment banking services in the archipelago with deals worth 55 million US dollars in the pipeline, officials said. Acuity, a unit of Sri Lanka’s listed DFCC Bank and Hatton National Bank is working with MCM […]

Aug 31, 2010 (LBO) – The outlook on Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank’s ‘AA-(lka)’ ratinghs been lifted to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’ on improving risk management ahead of other banks, Fitch Ratings has said. Its subordinated debenture rating (one notch lower) reflected the relatively lower recovery prospects for investors of this instrument compared to the bank’s senior […]

Aug 30, 2010 (LBO) – Hatton National Bank, a big private listed commercial bank, plans to hire more executives from Sri Lanka’s north-east former war zone as it moves to increase lending in agriculture, an official said. Rajendra Theagarajah, chief executive of the private listed Hatton National Bank, said the new hiring scheme is based […]