Bank of Ceylon - History

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 English 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: The Ceylon, Obtained her independence from the British and then the monetary authorities are transferred to Sri Lanka. Thereby in 1949 The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has been founded and regulation of all banks are assigned to them. Which they carrying out to-date.

• 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.

• 1961: Up until this year the bank was operated as an individual organization and The Government of Sri Lanka stepped forward and declared the bank as a public organization. By then the government has nationalized BoC and became a semi government institute.

• 1972: The then government declared the name of the country as 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 majority of Sri Lanka's rural areas by the end of this period.

• 1979: As oppose 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 for handle the boom of request 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 it named the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka.

• 1987: The bank moved into its 32-storey headquarters. Sri Lankans have nicknamed the building (Puttu bambuwa"") 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 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.

• 2010: BoC converted its branch in London to a subsidiary.

• 2010: BOC achieves its highest ever profit before tax at LKR 10.1Bln.

• 2011: As a result of expanding their services around the world that BOC reported the highest profit in Sri Lankan Commercial Banks as it 15.5 Billion.

• 2012: BOC reaches one Trillion asset base showing its strength and stability becoming the first ever financial institute in Sri Lanka reached such position.