Category: Banking and Finance

Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – Foreign exchange trading profits in Sri Lankan banks plummeted in the December 2009 quarter as a firmer currency peg with the US dollar reduced volatility emerging data showed. At state-run Bank of Ceylon group, the country’s largest commercial bank by assets, forex profits had fallen 96 percent to just 90 […]

Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka said it removed People’s Merchant Bank’s National Long-term rating from Rating Watch Negative and downgraded the rating to ‘BB+(lka)’ from ‘BBB-(lka)’. The rating agency said in a statement it also assigned PMB a Negative Outlook. “The rating actions reflect PMB’s weakened financial profile in terms of its […]

Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s investment promotion agency said it has approved an investment by a unit of Lankaclear, the national clearing house, to provide cash management services to banks in rural north-central Anuradhapura. The Board of Investment said in a statement Lankaclear Cash Management, a joint venture by Lankaclear and Transnational Group, […]

Mar 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has to cut its high rate of tax on banks to allow the sector to build capital as the economy is poised to grow after a war ended last year, a top banker has said. Taxation has in the past and continues to be in the present a […]

Mar 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Pan Asia Banking Corporation’s (PABC) December quarter profits fell 70 percent to 19. 7 million rupees from a year earlier, on higher expenses and tax while full year net was up 73 percent to 387 million rupees on fee income. Full year interest income was up 10 percent […]

Mar 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank group December quarter net profits were up 156 percent from a year earlier to 1,830 million rupees on loan recoveries and wider margins, while full year profits grew 58 percent to 4,483 million rupees. HNB reported earnings per share of 7.76 rupee for the quarter […]

Mar 07, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered a probe on the purchase of a Ceylinco group firm by the chairman of Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka, a state-run bank, in the course of a court case relating to a failed financial firm, a media report said. Supreme Court Justice Shirani Tilakawardene […]

Feb 05, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Vallibel Finance, a unit of Vallibel group of entrepreneur Dhammika Perera, said it is selling down a 25 percent stake in an initial public offering on the Colombo Stock Exchange’s main board to raise 114.4 million rupees. “The funds will be used for new leasing, hire purchase and […]

Mar 05, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s NDB Bank said its chief executive Eran Wickramaratne has resigned from his post as he plans to enter parliament as a member of the main opposition United National Party. The bank said in a stock exchange filing that Russel de Mel, now serving as vice president – head […]

Feb 04, 2010 (LBO) – A scheme to pay ‘bonus interest’ of one fifth above prevailing interest rates to senior citizens from January 01 would cost the people about 1. 2 billion rupees a year, a government minister said. The cabinet of minister had approved a proposal on Wednesday to pay extra interest for deposits […]

Mar 04, 2010 (LBO) – Pan Asia Banking Corporation (PABC) is looking to diversify its loan book by wooing customers to take its ‘Express Nivasa’ housing loan scheme that gives quick loan approvals to future home owners. “The housing sector went through some trouble last year,” A G Weerasinghe, chairman at PABC said. “Houses that […]

Mar 03, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will host the 46th conference of governors of South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) and 30th meeting of the SEACEN Board of Governors in February 2011, the Central bank said. It said in a statement that at the last meeting held in February 2010 in Cambodia, governors discussed […]