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BoC opens London Bank in Sri Lanka
Thursday, 8 July 2010 - 10:21 AM SL Time
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The Bank of Ceylon London branch will be turned in to a fully fledged bank with its official re-launch on August 12. The Bank of Ceylon (UK Ltd) will enable full banking operations and concentrate more on deposits and lending.
The core business of the bank will be remittances. It intends to increase the level of remittances to Sterling Pounds 5 million a month from its current 3 million within a year.
Now we can conduct normal banking services and this will be the only bank representing Sri Lanka that is fully-owned by Bank of Ceylon (BoC).
With the limited functions that were carried out as a branch, we are now in a position to engage in lending. This will be a real benefit to the Sri Lankans, BoC Chairman Dr Gamini Wickramasinghe told the Daily News.
The bank plans to leverage London operations coordinating with other EU countries including Italy, Germany and France with further plans to cover the US, Canada, Australasia, Japan and Korea to make this as an international bank, he said.
The BoC will focus on regional countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and will consolidate the operations in Maldives and Bangladesh to expand the branch network.
The Bank which recorded profits for the last three years will work towards increasing profitability with the expectation of break even within three years of operations.
The BoC UK bank will operate according to Financial Services Authority UK regulations and have invested Sterling Pounds 15 million to set up the bank.
We need to generate new businesses and looking at housing and business loans to generate funds. We have a fully fledged ATM network to link any ATM in the banking system and will engaged in more Internet related banking services. The bank will provide facilities to make remittances from major banks through the BoC UK bank to Sri Lanka free. This would attract more remittances to the country, Dr Wickramasinghe said.
The Bank will facilitate the investment drive of Sri Lanka with expected increase in the remittances that in-turn will facilitate the Government s development drive.
The BoC is optimistic that large number of people will have long lasting banking relationship with the bank. It appeals to remittances agencies to patronize free service provided by the UK branch to receive benefit from this service.
It is important to make BoC an international bank and use this entity to support foreign exchange related activities in Sri Lanka.
Internet banking will be a major feature and total banking facilities will be provided with this facility.
We will be offering higher interest rates to our customers to encourage Sri Lankans in UK and Europe to patronize our services. We are competitive in our approach and the profits gained will be channelled to Sri Lanka to support its development drive.
People can invest in our capital market through BoC UK bank where the bank acts as a bridge building closer relationship. It will issue Sterling Pound bonds and debentures to raise funds to fuel development of Sri Lanka in general and the North and East in particular.
The UK bank will also introduce local financial products such as Infinity Retirement plan and NRFC Children s accounts to attract more funds.
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