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Bank of Ceylon

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Not to be confused with Commercial Bank of Ceylon.

Bank of Ceylon
Company typeGovernment-owned corporation
IndustryBanking, financial services
Founded1936; 88 years ago (1936)
FounderSir Ernest de Silva
HeadquartersBOC Square, Bank of Ceylon Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Area served
Sri Lanka
Maldives
India
United Kingdom
Seychelles
Key people
Kanchana Ratwatte (Chairman)[1]
Visakha Amarasekere (Executive Director)[1]
ServicesRetail banking, corporate banking, investment banking
RevenueIncrease Rs 239.116 billion (2019)[1]
Increase Rs 29.685 billion (2019)[1]
Increase Rs 23.098 billion (2019)[1]
Total assetsIncrease Rs 2.415 tillion (2019)[1]
Total equityIncrease Rs 142.283 billion (2019)[1]
Number of employees
Decrease 8,503 (2019)[1]
ParentMinistry of Finance
SubsidiariesCeybank Asset

Bank of Ceylon (UK) Limited (100%)
Property Development PLC (96%)
Hotels Colombo
Transnational Lanka Records Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance PLC (75%)
Ceybank Asset Management Limited (43%)
Southern Development Financial Company (42%)
Transnational Lanka Records Solutions (25%)

Lanka Securities (20%)
Websiteboc.lk

Bank of Ceylon (BOC; Sinhala: ලංකා බැංකුව Lanka Bænkuwa|Tamil: இலங்கை வங்கி Ilangai Vangi) is a state-owned, major commercial bank in Sri Lanka. Its head office is located in an iconic cylindrical building in Colombo, the political and commercial capital of the island.

The bank has a network of 628 branches, 689 automated teller machines (ATMs), 123 CDM network and 15 regional loan centres within the country. It also has an around-the-clock call centre at 0094 11 2204444 and an around the clock branch at its Colombo office.

In addition to the local presence, the bank maintains an off-shore banking unit in the head office in Colombo, three branches in Malé, Chennai and Seychelles, and a subsidiary in London.

History

Bank of Ceylon (BOC) was founded in 1939, with Sir Ernest de Silva as its first chairman. At the time, Ceylon was a British colony and the then governor Sir Andrew Caldecott ceremoniously opened the bank on 1 August. The British government introduced the banking arm for its government-oriented businesses. Two years later, in 1941, BoC started to expand beyond the city of Colombo. It opened its first branch in Kandy. Subsequently, BOC added branches in major cities such as Galle, Jaffna, Kurunegala, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Badulla and Panadura.

  • 1948: Ceylon obtained her independence from the British. and then the monetary authorities were transferred to Sri Lanka. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka was established in 1949 and it assumed responsibility for monetary policy and bank regulation.
  • 1949: BoC opened its first overseas branch in London, United Kingdom. This helps the bank and the government to handle the business between two countries easily.
  • 1953: Mr .Chelliah Loganathan appointed as the first Sri Lankan General Manager and Chief Executive Officer. (Resigned in 1969)
  • 1961: T. B. Ilangaratne, Minister of Commerce, Trade, Food and Shipping oversaw the nationalisation of the bank. Up until this year, the bank was operated as an individual organisation and the government of Sri Lanka stepped forward and declared the bank as a public organisation and became a semi-government institute.
  • 1972: The then government declared the name of the country to be Sri Lanka. However, the bank did not rename itself accordingly. The government also passed the Agricultural Productivity Law, which forced the bank to open Agrarian Service Centre branches in almost all villages in the country. As a result of that, the branch network of the bank expanded tremendously to the majority of Sri Lanka's rural areas by the end of this period.
  • 1979: As opposed to the controlled economy by the government, the then government relaxed the exchange control regulations by making it regulate by central bank up to some period and then by the market demand itself. This Liberalization of exchange control regulations led the bank to open its first Foreign Currency Unit to handle the booming demand for non-local currency requirements.
  • 1981: BOC passed another big milestone by opening the second overseas branch, this one in Malé, Maldives.
  • 1982: BOC founded the first merchant bank in Sri Lanka, which was named the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka.
  • 1987: The bank moved into its 32-storey headquarters. Sri Lankans have nicknamed the building (Pittu bambuwa "පිට්ටු බම්බුව") a Sinhalese term used for a cylindrical cooking implement. The new building enabled the bank to house all its administrative offices and central operations in one location.
  • 1989: The bank joined with the Visa International to introduce the first credit cards business to Sri Lanka.
  • 1994: BOC joined SWIFT at the SWIFT BIC BCEYLKLX along with 15 other financial institutions in Sri Lanka.
  • 1995: BOC expanded its foreign operations by opening its third foreign branch in Karachi, Pakistan and fourth in Chennai, India. This facilitated the bank's operations in the Asian Clearing Union.
  • 2003: BOC took a 15% stake in newly formed Dawood Bank in Pakistan, which was later renamed as Burj Bank. BOC then transferred all its operations in Pakistan to the new bank.
  • 2006: BOC finally was able to connect all its branches in the inland to one network.
  • 2008: Trade services (import and export services) reached the ISO 9001-2008 the best and first-ever Sri Lankan bank could reach.
  • 2010: BOC converted its branch in London to a subsidiary.
  • 2010: BOC achieves its highest ever profit before tax at LKR 10.1 billion (~0.8 billion USD).
  • 2011: As a result of expanding their services around the world that BOC reported the highest profit in Sri Lankan Commercial Banks as it Sri Lanka rupees 15.5 billion (~1.2 billion USD).
  • 2012: BOC reaches 1 trillion asset base showing its strength and stability becoming the first-ever financial institute in Sri Lanka reached such a position.
  • 2012: BOC reached its record profit of 19.7 billion LKR (~US$0.16 billion) and classified for AA+ (LKA) Fitch rating with over-subscribing of its US$500 million debenture issue.
  • 2014: BOC started its commercial operations in Seychelles.
  • 2014: BOC celebrated its 75th anniversary in grand scale on 1 August 2014.
  • 2015: BOC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.[2]
  • 2016 Highest profit recoded 24.791 billion more than 16% profit recode.
  • 2017 Bank lunch android and ios based passbook application.
  • 2018 Company lunched "BOC Smart Online Banking" and "B" app.
  • 2019 BOC fitch rate rise up AA+.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "BOC 2019 Annual Report" (PDF). Colombo Stock Exchange. pp. 10, 26, 74. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  2. ^ "BTMU signs a MoU with Bank of Ceylon".
  3. ^ "Sri Lanka's NSB, Bank of Ceylon, People's ratings confirmed by Fitch; outlooks stable". EconomyNext. 3 September 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2020.

[1]

  1. ^ "CSE - Colombo Stock Exchange". www.cse.lk. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
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