Category: Banking and Finance

July 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Seylan Bank group net profit shot up 66 percent to 312 million rupees in the June 2010 quarter from a year ago as interest margins improved, a stock exchange filing said. Deposits and performing loans grew slightly and the bank managed to reduce bad loans. Interest income fell […]

July 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Regional Development Banks (RDBs) are to merge, getting access to foreign funds, and diversify from agriculture into other areas like tourism and lend in the former north-east war zone, officials said. The single entity created from the merger will help reduce costs and improve operating efficiency. “Operating […]

July 16, 2010 (LBO) – A credit guarantee scheme introduced by Sri Lanka’s central bank has become operational with a finance company making use of the first liquidity facility this week, a statement said. “The Central Bank is actively encouraging the speedy utilization of the scheme by the RFCs and the respective banks,” it said. […]

July 13, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s loans to private borrowers rose by 7. 7 billion rupees in May 2010 but the state borrowed more than double that amount from commercial banks to support its deficit spending, official data showed. Excessive state borrowing that appropriates people’s savings at high rates has been the most important […]

July 13, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s finance companies which are facing liquidity shortages will get new credit under a central bank guarantee scheme with the first facility going to a firm this week, the regulator said. “Through the resumption and revival of their normal business, the RFCs are expected to be able to meet […]

July 8, 2010 (LBO) – Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka, a unit of state-run Bank of Ceylon, may need to inject new capital into a troubled savings bank and insurance firm it bought during an economic downturn, a rating agency said. RAM ratings confirmed Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka’s (MBSL) ‘AA-‘ domestic long term rating […]

July 7, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Lanka Orix Leasing Company will expand credit to war torn northern and eastern areas of the country armed with a credit line from the French government, officials said. PROPARCO, the private sector funding arm of the French foreign aid agency gave a 10 million euro credit line to […]

July 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank is to open an office in northern Jaffna where it could help with loans and be a catalyst for the economic revival of the region after a war, a statement said. It will be the banking regulator’s fourth provincial office complementing others in the southern, north-central […]

June 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s RAM Ratings has given a ‘BBB+’ long term financial enhancement rating to Construction Guarantee Fund (CGF) saying it has state backing though vulnerable to the volatility of the industry and has no re-insurance as yet. Guarantees are given without any collateral, by evaluating the contractors’ capabilities against the […]

June 23, 2010 (LBO) – Si lanka’s Central Bank has promoted four officers as assistant governors from June 15 as part of the bank’s succession plan, a statement said. The new assistant governors are Y A de Silva, W M Hemachandra, S Lankathilake, and C J P Siriwardena. Y A de Silva, a former Director […]

June 22, 2010 (LBO) – Loans to private borrowers from Sri Lanka’s commercial banks grew at a slower rate in April compared with March while foreign currency loans fell, latest Central Bank data shows. Credit to the private sector rose 7. 6 billion rupees to 1,242.7 billion rupees in April compared with March, when it […]

June 20, 2010 (LBO) – Lankaputhra Development Bank, a state bank set up to fulfill an election promise, has increased its bad loans to 55. 9 percent in 2009, from 19.2 percent a year earlier, a government report has revealed. Lankaputhra or ‘sons of the Lanka’ bank was set up to fill a supposed lack […]