Category: Banking and Finance

Aug 21, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nations Trust Bank, a unit of John Keells Holdings has shaken up the top management of the bank shortly after an 800 million rupee foreign exchange loss was discovered. The bank was also being probed by Sri Lanka’s securities watchdog. Update II Saliya Rajakaruna, retiring chief financial officer […]

Aug 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s The Finance Company, a unit of the troubled Ceylinco group, said it lost 693 million rupees in the June 2009 quarter as net interest income remained negative and loan loss provisions continued to rise. The company had made a net profit of 45 million rupees in the same […]

Aug 14, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s NDB Bank group profits grew 45.7 percent to 529.7 million rupees in the June 2009 quarter from a year earlier, on revenues that grew 22.5 percent to 3.79 billion rupees, the company said.Deposits grew 24 percent to 38.5 billion rupees from 31.0 billion in December. NDB group gross […]

Aug 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank said group profits rose 2.7 percent to 1,122.1 million rupees in the June 2009 quarter from a year earlier, while revenues rose 2.0 percent to 11.0 billion. Interest income fell 1.3 percent to 8.96 billion, interest expenses rose 1.8 percent to 6.12 billion rupees, causing interest […]

Aug 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said it has promoted six officers as Assistant Governor with effect from August 10, 2009. The officers are W M Karunaratne, P Liyanage , J P Mampitiya, C K Nanayakkara, B D W A Silva and P N Weerasinghe. “These promotions have been made in line […]

Aug 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s banking regulator said it intends to regulate and closely supervise payment card service providers almost a year after the collapse of one firm triggered a crisis in a local conglomerate. The Central Bank said in a statement that use of payment cards, such as credit cards, debit cards […]

Aug 11, 2009 (LBO) – RAM Ratings said it has lifted the Rating Watch on Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL) and also confirmed the long- and short-term ratings at AA- and P1. The long term rating has a stable outlook, the rating agency said in a statement. The AA- ratings of the bank’s 300 […]

Aug 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan commercial banks which seem to enjoy wide interest margins on the surface have low profitability, amid high taxation and rising bad loans, a senior banker has warned.“Capital providers would probably not think of banks as a prime sector to invest in this market” Nihal Fonseka, chief executive of […]

Aug 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank said profits for the June quarter went up 20 percent to 449 million rupees from a year ago on higher interest margins, fee-based income and loan recoveries, despite a shrinking loan book. Sampath Bank said in a stock exchange filing that group interest income for the […]

Aug 04, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Pan Asia Banking Corporation (PABC) June quarter profits shot up 346 percent on strong net interest income and higher fee income despite rising bad loans, interim results showed. In the first six months of 2009, the banks performing loan book was up 12.2 percent to 10.66 billion rupees, […]

Aug 04, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank (HNB) said group net profit shot up 76 percent to 996 million rupees in the June 2009 quarter from a year ago as interest margins improved but loan growth slowed. The balance sheet showed a steep 330 percent increase in holdings of government securities to […]

Aug 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s DFCC Bank group said June 2009 quarter net profit fell 6.38 percent to 507.1 million rupees from a year ago owing to lower fee-based income, foreign exchange losses and weak returns from strategic investments. DFCC Group’s provisions for bad and doubtful debts had gone up 8.25 percent to […]