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People’s Bank has signed a landmark $200 million, eight-year, bilateral funding facility with China Development Bank, which is one of the largest and the longest tenor funding facilities secured by any commercial bank in Sri Lanka up to now.
The signing ceremony was held at China Development Bank’s Guangxi Branch in Nanning, People’s Republic of China on 27 March.
Chief Executive Officer/General Manager N. Vasantha Kumar and Guangxi Branch General Manager Mei Shiwen signed the facility agreement representing People’s Bank and China Development Bank respectively. Thereafter several rounds of discussions were held between senior officials of People’s Bank and China Development Bank with regard to future cooperation between the two institutions.
China Development Bank selected People’s Bank to sign an historic Memorandum of Understanding in May 2018 covering areas such as financing, customer referrals, introducing investment opportunities in Sri Lanka and training and experience exchange, etc. The aforesaid facility was signed as a result of this Memorandum of Understanding.
Since its inception 57 years ago, People’s Bank has opened its doors to customers across the country, and has continuously leveraged its resources to uplift many lives through financial services. With an insight into the financial needs of the citizens, from young to old, People’s Bank has constantly strived and committed itself to elevate the living standards of the citizens.
Through its massive network of 738 branches island-wide and over 4000 ATM machines and affiliated to Lanka Pay Gateway, People’s Bank has reached more than 10 million customers offering a wide spectrum of financial services.
The bank also provides its services 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year via its Self-Banking Units: amounting over 200 across the island. This helps People’s Bank customers to conduct numerous banking transactions with utmost efficiency, without requiring to visiting a bank branch in person.
People’s Bank also continues to play a pivotal role in encouraging and empowering scores of industries including agriculture, real estate, commercial development, small and medium enterprises, as well as import and export sectors; supporting a holistic development of communities throughout the island.
The China Development Bank was founded in 1994 to provide development-oriented financing for high-priority government projects. At the inception, it was established as a policy financial institution under the direct leadership of the State Council and later, in 2008, it was incorporated as China Development Bank Corporation and was officially defined by State Council as a development finance institution in 2015. At present they provide financing for national projects such as infrastructure development, basic industries, energy, and transportation.
With its headquarters established in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, China Development Bank is the world’s largest development financial institution and the largest Chinese bank for financing cooperation, long-term lending and bond issuance.
China Development Bank has a registered capital of RMB 421 billion (approximately $ 63 billion) and its assets grew to RMB 16 trillion (approximately $ 2.4 trillion) by end 2017. At present, it has 37 primary branches and three secondary branches across the country, one off-shore branch in Hong Kong and 10 representative offices in Egypt, Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, United Kingdom, Laos, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Indonesia and Australia.
