Lanka Credit & Business Finance opens 7th branch in Karapitiya

LCB Finance that created history in the Southern Province by been the first finance company to be registered in the province under the Companies Act No. 7 of 2007 (Reg. No. PB 5329), and commenced operations through their first branch at Galle, the capital of the province, on 16 May 2016, opened their seventh branch in Karapitiya recently. 

Prominent businessmen, politicians, depositors, directors, staff and distinguished guests graced this grand occasion. K.G. Leelalanda in his welcome speech recalled the memories of the beginning of LCB Finance and said he would be happy to take LCB into the present healthy situation and thanked the staff and loyal customers who relied on his word and started the business with LCB Finance.

They were backed by an admirable and a prestige group of founder investors and directors and dedicated key executives who guided the affairs of the company complying with the regulatory requirements of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and statutory requirements of the Finance Business Act No. 42 of 2011, the Finance Leasing Act No. 56 of 2000 to build a strong base financially and a healthy reputation among their customers.

Recognising their financial strength, best management practice and the directions provided by their board, the Monitory Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka transferred the management and the control of the City Finance Corporation which was under their control and supervision until then. With this take over they restructured their financial institute under finance business Act No. 42 of 2011 under a new business name ‘Lanka Credit and Business Finance Ltd. (LCB Finance).

They plan to expand their services to cover business, industrial and private segments of the country by providing savings and lending products to meet their life’s objective as follows:

To the saving community to secure their future from kids to the pensioners ‘Podiththa’, ‘Smart’, ‘Regina’, ‘Uththama’ and certificates of deposits for all. To entrepreneurs they provide finance to meet working capital requirements, credit to individuals for viable self-employment activities, to salaried employees’ loans for housing and lease finance or hire purchase facilities to acquire vehicles consumer durables. To meet unexpected domestic cash needs they provide gold loans at a very attractive rate of advance in relation to market value of gold mortgaged. 

The Board of Directors consists of the following people: Emeritus Professor W.M. Abeyrathna Bandara (Chairman of the Board of Directors), K.G. Leelananda (Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer and Founder Director, R.L. Masakorala, A.G. Maheen Priyantha, U.K.H.R. Ranasinghe, K.I. Weerasinghe, J.W. Nanayakkara, S.W. Subasinghe, V. Lokunarangoda, G.K. Nanayakkara and S.A.K. Alahakoon They are backed by a team key executives who are experienced and professionals in their respective fields of activity.  

They have been granted the status of ‘Authorised Money Changer’ of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and their branches are recording a considerable progress in this activity. Their customers will be able to pay their utility bills at our counters and effect fund transfers through SLIP system and receive remittances through Western Union especially from family members employed overseas shortly.

Mapping for the future: In this regard K.G. Leelalanda said, “We plan to strengthen our capital base, reduce incidence of non performing credit through perpetual monitoring the loan portfolios at branch level and adhering to proactive recover procedures. At present we reach our customers through our branches located at Kohuwala (Head Office) Galle, Karandeniya, Mirissa, Pelawaththa, Rathgama, and our new branch at Karapitiya backed by our Southern Province Regional Office at the same premises .We are confident that with the due approval of the regulatory authorities we would be able to fulfil our aspiration to increase our branch network up to 25 branches by the year 2020.” 

He further said, “We also plan to employ more than 50 field staff to provide door to door services to our customers, which would involve among others deposit mobilisation and loan recovery. This would no doubt create employment opportunities to our qualified school leavers fulfilling an ominous need in our society. As we augment our financial standing we envisage becoming a listed company in the Colombo Security Exchange with due approvals from the regulatory and statutory authorities (CBSL). 

“To serve our clientele more efficiently we plan to provide Automated Teller Service (ATM) shortly utilising our own system and by entering to sharing arrangements with selected Commercial Banks. Our IT capacity is to be enhanced by procuring a core Banking package and the required infrastructure is been developed, which would improve our digital capabilities towards providing efficient and speedy service to our customers and also meet the reporting requirements of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and our Management Information Capabilities (MIS).

“We wish to place on record that on the date of our opening of our seventh branch our appreciation of the trust place on us by our valued customers so far, which we will treasure in our long journey to realise our aforesaid objectives, in the financing segment of the economy, of our motherland. We extend our thanks to the regulatory authorises for the guidance extended to us in our endeavour to build our company to reach this point, in our brief history. We wish our existing and future customers a bright future.”