Sunday, 9 March 2008 :

ebanklanka is a virtual banking solution to be introduced by Intermax Solution where all the commercial banks in the country as well as the Central Bank and the government institutions will be linked online.
"We started developing the trilingual website in September last year and completed it early January," said CEO Intermax Solutions, Dilan Sanjeewa. He said Internet Banking is the modern trend in banking which enables the customers to engage in all types of transactions through the net be it balance inquiry, fund transferring, utility payments or opening new accounts.
The Central Bank and the Bankers' Association is guiding the project.
In our country too there are local and foreign banks who have introduced Internet Banking services to their customers but just a handful of customers are benefited by them as most customers are not aware of the benefits.
The mission of Intermax Solution (Pvt) Ltd is to function as a medium to enlighten the Sri Lankans on Internet Banking and modern economic and social trends. This website ebanklanka will outline the history, the functions and the services of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. This will further educate the people about the Fiscal policy of the country, orders and regulations issued to the public by the Central Bank and also about the treasury bills.

Jan 25, 2008
Bank of Ceylon (BOC) has deployed international authentication services provider VeriSign's hacking and identity theft countering security features in its online banking transactions in Sri Lanka.
VeriSign's Identity Protection Services (VIP) for BOC's online banking customers will provide an extra layer of security through VeriSign's multiple authentication scheme.
The scheme uses a security token which contains a dynamic combination relevant to the bank, apart from the normal username and the password.
This restricts hacking or identity theft (phishing) whenever an online transaction such as a payment, fund transfer or banking transaction takes place.
Only a handful of e-commerce sites recognize online payment and other commercial activities from Sri Lanka but Janaratne plans to discuss with web sites to provide customers with the BOC token the ease of online transactions.
The VeriSign authentication service is used by over 500,000 websites, 93 percent of the Fortune 500 companies and 40 of the world's largest banks.

Recently, there have been allegations that the Central Bank is planning to sell large quantities of gold from its reserves. These allegations are malicious and are obviously made by certain interested parties who are attempting to mislead the public that the country’s reserves in gold are being sold confidentially in order to enable the Government to meet its expenses.
The official international reserves of the country are managed by the Central Bank and held as foreign currency balances in reputed international banks overseas, foreign currency denominated instruments and gold. The Bank conducts transactions with foreign counterparts in all foreign assets, including gold, as a part of its international reserve management operations. These transactions are done in accordance with the Monetary Law Act. With the recent sharp increase in the reserve position, the Central Bank has further increased its gold holdings as part of its reserve management strategy.
The public is therefore notified that these allegations are blatantly false and should not be misguided by such false information.

Sept 06, 2009 (LBO) - A 54.2 million sale of fresh voting shares in Sri Lanka's Seylan Bank to raise 1.9 billion rupees, after it was put under new management by regulators, has attracted the interest of foreign funds, a top official said.
Seylan voting shares closed at 33.00 rupees Friday and non-voting shares at 12.0. The issue is not underwritten, but officials say there is an appetite for the share among foreign institutional investors who want to buy into a sizeable stake in a Sri Lankan bank. "Several foreign funds have expressed interest in buying a stake," chairman Eastman Narangoda said.
Under Sri Lankan banking law, which is makes take-overs and restructuring of banks difficult, a single shareholder can only hold 10 percent of a bank, though its enforcement has been questioned.
Seylan is offering 54.29 million shares at 35.00 rupees each to the public to raise 1.9 billion rupees in an offering that opens on September 21.
It is also placing 13.0 million voting shares with state-run Bank of Ceylon to raise 450 million, and 19.15 million shares with Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation to raise 675.25 million rupees.
After the issue the bank will have 130.0 million voting shares, 123.56 million non-voting shares and 3.3 million non-convertible, non-redeemable preference shares.
Seylan was taken over by regulators and put under an independent board after a the collapse of Ceylinco group firm last year triggered a run on the bank.
The Ceylinco group controlled the bank through its own shares as well as through employee share trusts, which was controlled by the management. After the share issue, the voting shares controlled by the share trusts will fall to 9.0 percent.
For the 6-months to June the Seylan Bank group made a profit of 188.0 million rupees. At bank level, profits were 137.8 million rupees.
In the quarter to June the group profit was 187.8 million rupees. At bank level the profit was 93.9 million rupees.
Officials say the bank has raised 4.0 billion rupees in fresh deposits following a recent marketing drive, its liquid assets are above regulatory requirements and after the share issue, it will also meet capital requirements.

Fitch Ratings said it has confirmed HSBC Sri Lanka's (HSBCSL) National Long-term rating at 'AAA(lka)' with a stable outlook.
HSBCSL's rating reflects the financial strength of Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (HKB), as it is part of the same legal entity," it said in a statement.
HSBC is Hong Kong's largest banking group and is wholly-owned by HSBC Holdings Plc which has a 'AA' rating with a negative outlook.
HSBCSL's loan book contracted by seven percent in H109, after expanding 19.7 percent in FY08 (year ending 31 December 2008), the majority of the increase coming from the corporate customer segment.
Consequently, the corporate customer segment accounted for 61 percent of loans at FYE08, while the consumer/retail customer segment accounted for the remainder.
"Credit concentrations increased significantly at FYE08 resulting from exposure to large local corporate customers," Ficth Ratings said.
"HSBCSL's asset quality remains relatively strong in a local context, but has come under pressure in the face of the unfavourable macroeconomic environment."
Consequently, the gross NPL (non-performing loan) ratio increased to 3.9 percent at H109 from 2.8 percent at FYE08.
"This was mainly on account of higher delinquencies across the consumer/retail customer segment as observed across the banking sector," Fitch said.

In addition to conservative write-off policies adopted for unsecured consumer NPLs, HSBCSL's provisioning is more prudent, with specific provision covering 69 percent of NPLs at FYE08. Profitability as measured by ROA (return on assets) remained flat at 1.3 percent due to higher effective taxes, but improved to 1.8 percent in H109 due to better cost efficiency, Fitch said.
HSBCSL sustained net interest margins above that of the sector due to lower funding costs and high yielding assets.
"HSBCSL's capitalisation remains healthy, although equity/assets decreased to 9.2 percent at FYE08 (FYE07: 10.9%) due to the repatriation of profits to the head office and the increase in assets, but continued to be above the 7.4 percent for the sector at FYE08."
Further, Fitch said, capital adequacy ratios (CARs) remain comfortable under the Basel II framework, with core and total CARs of 11.16 percent and 11.9 percent, at June 2009.
Customer deposits continue to be the predominant source of funding, accounting for 63 percent of total funding at FYE08, although funding from borrowings, obtained mainly through the broader HSBC group, rose considerably to 21 percent at FYE08.

Finance Companies registered under the Finance Companies Act (In Alphabetical Order)
1. Abans Financial Services Ltd
2. Alliance Finance Co. PLC
3. Arpico Finance Co. PLC
4. Asia Assets Finance Ltd
5. Asian Finance Ltd
6. Associated Motor Finance Co. Ltd
7. AMW Capital Leasing Ltd
8. Bartleet Finance Ltd
9. Bimputh Lanka Investments Ltd
10. Capital Reach Leasing Ltd
11. Central Finance Co. PLC
12. Central Investments & Finance Ltd.
13. Ceylinco Investment & Realty Ltd
14. Chilaw Finance Ltd.
15. Commercial Credit Ltd
16. Edirisinghe Trust Investments Ltd
17. Industrial Finance Ltd
18. Nextfinance Ltd (formerly Janashakthi Finance &
Investments Ltd.
19. L B Finance PLC
20. Lanka ORIX Finance Co. Ltd
21. Mercantile Investments Ltd
22. Merchant Credit of Sri Lanka Ltd
23. Nanda Investments Ltd
24. Senkadagala Finance Co. Ltd
25. Seylan Merchant Leasing PLC
26. Silvereen Finance Co. Ltd
27. Singer Finance (Lanka) Ltd
28. Sinhaputra Finance Ltd
29. Swarnamahal Financial Services Ltd.
30. The Finance & Guarantee Co. Ltd
31. The Finance Co. PLC.
32. The Multi Finance Co. Ltd
33. Trade Finance & Investm

Banks licensed under the Banking Act in Sri Lanka:
A. Licensed Commercial Banks (In Alphabetical Order)
1. Bank of Ceylon
2. Citibank N A
3. Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC
4. Deutsche Bank AG
5. DFCC Vardhana Bank Ltd
6. Habib Bank Ltd.
7. Hatton National Bank PLC
8. ICICI Bank Ltd
9. Indian Bank
10. Indian Overseas Bank
11. MCB Bank Ltd
12. National Development Bank PLC
13. Nations Trust Bank PLC
14. Pan Asia Banking Corporation PLC
15. People’s Bank
16. Public Bank Berhad
17. Sampath Bank PLC
18. Seylan Bank PLC
19. Standard Chartered Bank
20. State Bank of India
21. The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corpn. Ltd
22. Union Bank of Colombo Ltd


B. Licensed Specialized Banks (In Alphabetical Order)

1. MBSL Savings Bank Ltd
2. DFCC Bank
3. Housing Development Finance Corporation
Bank of Sri Lanka (HDFC)
4. Kandurata Development Bank
5. Lankaputhra Development Bank Ltd.
6. National Savings Bank
7. Rajarata Development Bank
8. Ruhuna Development Bank
9. Sabaragamuwa Development Bank
10. Sanasa Development Bank Ltd
11. Sri Lanka Savings Bank Ltd
12. State Mortgage & Investment Bank
13. Uva Development Bank
14. Wayamba Development Bank