This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(March 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Bank of Ceylon

Company type	Government-owned corporation
Industry	Banking,financial services
Founded	1939; 87 years ago (1939)
Founder	Sir Ernest de Silva
Headquarters	BOC Square, Bank of Ceylon Mawatha,Colombo, Sri Lanka
Number of locations	578(2024)[1]
Area served	Sri Lanka Maldives India United Kingdom Seychelles
Key people	Kavinda de Zoysa[2](Chairman) W. P. Russel Fonseka(General Manager andChief Executive Officer)
Services	Retail banking,corporate banking,investment banking
Revenue	US$ 1.659 billion(2024)[1]
Operating income	US$ 622.186 million[1] (2024)
Net income	US$ 220.064 million(2024)[1]
Total assets	US$ 17.038 billion(2024)[1]
Total equity	US$ 1.034 billion(2024)[1]
Number of employees	7,980(2024)[1]
Parent	Ministry of Finance
Subsidiaries	Ceybank Asset Bank of Ceylon (UK) Limited(100%) Property Development PLC(96%) Hotels Colombo Transnational Lanka RecordsMerchant 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%)
Website	www.boc.lk

Bank of Ceylon (BOC;Sinhala: ලංකා බැංකුවLanka Bænkuwa,Tamil: இலங்கை வங்கிIlangai Vangi) is a state-owned, major commercial bank inSri Lanka. Its head office is located in an iconic cylindrical building inColombo.

The bank has a network of 651 branches, 715automated teller machines (ATMs), 159 CDM, 582 CRM network, and 15 regional loan centres within the country. It also has an around-the-clock call centre 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 inMalé,Chennai, andSeychelles, and a subsidiary inLondon.

This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bank of Ceylon" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Bank of Ceylon (BOC) was founded in 1939, withSir Ernest de Silva as its first chairman. At the time,Ceylon was a British colony and the then governor SirAndrew 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 inKandy. Subsequently, BOC added branches in major cities such asGalle,Jaffna,Kurunegala,Batticaloa,Trincomalee,Badulla, andPanadura.

• 1948: Ceylon obtained her independence from the British; the monetary authorities were transferred to Sri Lanka. TheCentral 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. The branch helped the bank and the government handle their international business.
• 1953:Chelliah Loganathan was the first Sri Lankan appointed as General Manager and Chief Executive Officer. He resigned in 1969.
• 1961:T. B. Ilangaratne, Minister of Commerce, Trade, Food and Shipping oversaw the nationalisation of the bank.
• 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, the branch network of the bank expanded tremendously to the majority of Sri Lanka's rural areas.
• 1979: the then government relaxed the exchange control regulations. 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 business.
• 1981: BOC passed another big milestone by opening the second overseas branch, this one inMalé, Maldives.
• 1982: BOC founded the firstmerchant 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 theVisa International to introduce the first credit cards business to Sri Lanka.
• 1994: BOC joinedSWIFT at theSWIFT BICBCEYLKLX along with 15 other financial institutions in Sri Lanka.
• 1995: BOC expanded its foreign operations by opening its third foreign branch inKarachi,Pakistan and fourth inChennai, India. This facilitated the bank's operations in theAsian Clearing Union.
• 2003: BOC took a 15% stake in newly formed Dawood Bank inPakistan, which was later renamed asBurj Bank. BOC then transferred all its operations in Pakistan to the new bank.
• 2010: BOC converted its branch in London to a subsidiary.
• 2014: BOC started its commercial operations in Seychelles.
• 2015: BOC signed amemorandum of understanding with theBank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.^[3]

• List of banks in the world
• List of banks in Sri Lanka
• List of banks in Asia

• "CSE - Colombo Stock Exchange".www.cse.lk. Retrieved19 September 2019.

• Bank of Ceylon

• 1939 establishments in Ceylon
• Banks established in 1939
• Banks of Sri Lanka
• Ceylon in World War II
• Nationalised companies in Sri Lanka
• State owned commercial corporations of Sri Lanka
• Banking in Sri Lanka
• Credit cards in Sri Lanka
• Finance in Sri Lanka

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use British English from February 2017
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from February 2017
• Articles lacking in-text citations from March 2014
• All articles lacking in-text citations
• Articles needing additional references from February 2024
• All articles needing additional references