Four branches in Italy this year:

BoC goes global

Targeting Lankans in 27 EU nations, North America, Asia and Australasia :

Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Bank of Ceylon will spread globally first into the 27 member European Union, then North America, Australia,New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The expansion into the 27-member European Union nations network, will be initially Italy, based on the success of the London Branch, now a fully fledged United Kingdom Bank. Italy will be followed initially by France and Germany.

Dr. Gamini Wickremesinghe

Plans are also on to expand in South India, with Rameswaran for a start and move to Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi. “We have ambitious plans of expanding into the 27-member European Union-nation network starting with a branch in the Italian capital of Rome or key city Milan in July and based on its success, we will be venturing into four other branches within Italy within this year with the London subsidiary as the BoC European headquarters,” Bank of Ceylon Chairman Dr. Gamini Wickremesinghe told Daily News Business yesterday.

“Now that we have the London subsidiary operated and regulated by the UK authorities, it is very easy to move into the European network.

The Italian based Bank of Ceylon branches will be established on the basis of the large groups of Sri Lankans who are resident there who earn three or four fold of what the Sri Lankans in the Gulf are drawing and we will use that bank as a remittance bank first and a fully fledged bank providing loans and taking deposits as well, he explained.

The diversification and expansion strategy of the bank has been in the context of accounting for 43 percent of the inward remittances of $ 4 billion for 2010.

“We have contributed $ 1.7 billion which amounts to Rs 189 billion and all the other 22 banks in Sri Lanka, collectively have contributed the remainder, the BoC chief said.

The UK operation, which is now Bank of Ceylon UK Ltd, is a fully fledged UK based bank comes under the Financial Services Authority.

Wickremasinghe is also Chairman of the UK Bank,which goes as a wholly owned subsidiary and it has Britishers on its Director Board.

The strategy will be to expand into Paris, Frankfurt and the rest of the European Union with the possibilities of Canada, USA, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The financial resources of the Tamil disapora will also be tapped in this context.

The Chairman was also pleased with the performances of the Madras and Male operations.

However, responding to a question as to why BoC had not launched a branch in the Gulf with all the expatriates employed there, he said that the start up fee was too high.

“There are 718 corresponding banks across the world and that is how we work in the Gulf as well. Most international banks recognize our Letters of Credit.

“Most of the other local banks go through the BoC UK subsidiary when they have to place money we market it as overnight money and do placements in the event of excess liquidity,” he said.

With the network of 718 global correspondents, the bank is well poised to meet the ever increasing demand for international banking services.

During the year, the bank has increased its remittances 20 percent year on year by joining new remittance schemes such as Shift Financial Jordan and Merchant Trading Malaysia.

The foreign currency deposit base has also risen by 30.2 percent YoY to Rs 166.4 billion from 127 billion.