Bank of Ceylon

Bank of Ceylon

Company type	Government-owned corporation
Industry	Banking, financial services
Founded	1939
Founder	Sir Ernest de Silva (Founder-Chairman)
Headquarters	BOC Square, Bank of Ceylon Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Area served	Sri Lanka Maldives India United Kingdom Seychelles
Key people	Ronald C Perera, President's Counsel (Chairman) Senarath Bandara (General Manager)
Services	Retail banking, corporate banking, investment banking
Revenue	US$ 1.316 billion (2019)
Operating income	US$ 413 million (2019)
Net income	US$ 126 million (2019)
Total assets	US$ 13.29 billion (2019
Total equity	US$ 780 million (2019)
Number of employees	8,503(2019)
Website	boc.lk

Bank of Ceylon is a state-owned, major commercial bank in Sri Lanka. Its head office is in an iconic cylindrical building in Colombo. The Bank has a network of 628 branches, 689 ATMs machines, 123 CDM network and 15 loan centres. It has an off-shore banking unit in the head office in Colombo, and three branches in Malé, Chennai and Seychelles, and subsidiary in London.

History

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 1st August. The English government introduced the banking arm for 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. Later, BOC added branches in major cities such as Galle, Jaffna, Kurunegala, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Badulla and Panadura.