News & market updates

Commercial High Court of Colombo ordered the liquidation of Bimputh Lanka Investments PLC on 14 Feb 2025; Bimputh has appealed to the Supreme Court (case no. SC/HC/LA 12/2025). The liquidation order followed a case (CHC/41/2024/CO) brought by HDFC.

DFCC Bank will reimburse LKR 2,000 of the transaction fee for remittances sent via Lanka Money Transfer to DFCC accounts (minimum LKR 50,000) during a promotion running until 31 January 2025. Customers are eligible for two monthly reimbursements and the top remitter wins a return air ticket.

Fitch upgraded the national long-term ratings of 10 Sri Lankan banks and affirmed five after recalibrating the national rating scale following a sovereign upgrade; upgrades include COMB, HNB, SAMP, SEYB, DFCC, NDB, NTB and PABC, while HDFC and SDB were affirmed. Fitch cited the sovereign IDR improvement as the driver.

Fitch upgraded the national long-term ratings of 10 Sri Lankan banks and affirmed five after recalibrating the national rating scale following a sovereign upgrade; most outlooks remain Stable. Union Bank and Cargills Bank carry Negative Outlooks due to capital-buffer and parent-support risks.

Fitch upgraded the national long-term ratings of 10 Sri Lankan banks and affirmed five after recalibrating the national rating scale following Sri Lanka's sovereign upgrade on 20 December 2024.

Colombo Stock Exchange rose as banking stocks led gains after Fitch upgraded several Sri Lankan banks; the ASPI closed up 1.40% at 16,828.80. Turnover was LKR 10.66bn with a net domestic inflow of LKR 670m and a net foreign outflow of LKR 670m; notable movers included HNB, NDB, Browns and Ceylon Tobacco.

ASPI rose 224 points to 16,597 and the S&P SL20 closed at 5,047 as the Colombo market hit new highs on Rs.8.3bn turnover led by banking stocks, with Commercial Bank, HNB, DFCC, NDB and Sampath among the top contributors.

Colombo Stock Exchange rose with the ASPI up 1.31% (224.01 pts to 16,597.16) and S&P SL20 up 1.72% (85.42 pts to 5,047.45), driven by banking stocks and strong retail turnover. Top turnover generators included Commercial Bank, HNB, DFCC, NDB and Sampath Bank, with a net foreign outflow of Rs 279 million.

HDFC Bank (HDFC.N0000) held a multi-religious blessing ceremony at its head office to mark the first working day of 2025, with Chairman P. J. Jayasinge conducting the first customer transaction and management pledging support for the 'Clean Sri Lanka' program.

Colombo Stock Exchange closed higher as the ASPI rose 1.07% to 14,810 and turnover hit Rs9.23bn, the highest since Feb 7. Top contributors included Central Finance, Ceylon Cold Stores, Melstacorp, Access Engineering and Chevron Lubricants; net foreign outflow was Rs226m.

Fitch says a successful sovereign debt restructuring and reduced sovereign stresses would support Sri Lankan banks' operating environments and national credit profiles. The agency expects easing funding and liquidity pressures and improved access to foreign‑currency wholesale funding.

Fitch says Sri Lanka’s banks’ financial profiles would improve following a successful sovereign debt restructure for local bondholders, likely easing funding and liquidity pressures and restoring access to foreign-currency wholesale funding.

Fitch says a completed sovereign debt restructuring and improvement in Sri Lanka's credit profile would support banks' operating environment and credit profiles, citing high exposure to local treasury instruments (33.4% of assets) and easing funding and liquidity pressures.

Kavinda de Zoysa has been appointed Chairman of Bank of Ceylon; he is a career banker with over 30 years’ experience and was most recently Director and Country Business Head of Citibank Sri Lanka, with a track record in digitization and corporate banking.

P.J. Jayasinghe assumed duties as Chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation Bank (HDFC.N0000) on 28 October. He previously served at Bank of Ceylon from 1977–2015 in senior roles including Deputy General Manager with experience across branch banking, treasury, corporate credit and HR.

HDFC Bank PLC appointed ex-Bank of Ceylon executive P.J. Jayasinghe as its new Chairman.

P.J. Jayasinghe has been appointed Chairman of HDFC Bank PLC. He is a former Deputy General Manager of Bank of Ceylon with extensive experience in branch banking, corporate credit, treasury, HR and served on various BOC subsidiary boards and industry bodies.

C.R.P. Balasuriya has been appointed Acting General Manager/CEO of HDFC Bank, effective 26 September 2024. He was previously Deputy General Manager (Treasury), will continue to oversee Treasury functions, and has over 35 years of banking experience.

HDFC Bank appointed Nishan Fernando and Kithsiri B. Wijeyaratne as Independent, Non-Executive Directors. Fernando is a senior chartered accountant and former chair of First Capital entities; Wijeyaratne is a senior finance executive with extensive banking and insurance experience.

Colombo Stock Exchange closed higher: All Share Index rose 1.19% to 11,096 and S&P SL20 rose 1.88% to 3,160. Larger banks (HNB, COMB, SAMP, DFCC, NDB) led gains while some smaller banks (NTB) fell and HDFC was flat; turnover was 994 million and net foreign outflow 5.2 million.

Colombo Stock Exchange closed higher with banks leading gains after Sri Lanka reached a deal to restructure defaulted sovereign bonds allowing local banks to swap 70% of ISBs into dollar bonds with a 10% haircut and convert the remaining 30% into rupee securities.

Intellect Design Arena launched eMACH.ai in Sri Lanka — a composable open-finance platform offering 329 microservices, 535 events and over 1,757 APIs to help banks design future-ready technology. Named local clients include HDFC Sri Lanka, Cargills Bank, Central Finance, CDB, Seylan Bank and Union Bank of Colombo.

Intellect Design Arena launched eMACH.ai in Sri Lanka — a composable open-finance platform with 329 microservices, 535 events and over 1,757 APIs — and cited local customers including HDFC, Cargills Bank, Central Finance, Seylan Bank and Union Bank as users/partners.

Fitch affirmed Housing Development Finance Corporation Bank of Sri Lanka's National Long-Term Rating at 'BB+(lka)' with a stable outlook. Fitch cited weak sovereign exposure and concentrated retail housing lending, noting impaired loans of 44.7% and government securities ~26% of assets at 1H24.