Commercial Bank of Ceylon has signalled its intentions to sharpen its focus on the sphere of investment banking, with the relaunch and renaming of its Corporate Finance Unit as ‘Commercial Bank Investment Banking’ to reflect the broader dimensions of the unit.

Commercial Bank Investment Banking will leverage t he status of Commercial Bank as the largest private bank in the country to offer potential issuers of listed securities in equity and debt forms, a comprehensive geographical reach for distribution of informational and documentary material such as prospectuses and application forms, to a large proportion of the potential investing public, Commercial Bank Assistant General Manager Corporate and Investment Banking Naveen Sooriyarachchi said.

“The extensive and broad customer relationships forged by the bank over its long history facilitate successful marketing of equity and debt issues. These strengths enable Commercial Bank Investment Banking to synthesise investment and commercial banking activities of the bank and function as managers and bankers to the issue of securities offerings,” he said.

One of the biggest strengths of Commercial Bank Investment Banking, Sooriyarachchi explained, is the fact that it is supported by the immense investment capability of Commercial Bank.

“Besides structuring debt issues for our clients, we have the financial strength to invest substantially in such instruments, as is proven by our investments in debentures in the concluded financial year,” he pointed out.

Commercial Bank Investment Banking has a dedicated team of experienced officers and is seeking to create some new innovations in the market in order to carve out a distinctive niche for itself, he disclosed.

“As a start, we have transitioned from the Corporate Finance Unit to Commercial Bank Investment Banking, the name change reflecting and indicating the greater scope of what we are trying to achieve,” Sooriyarachchi added.

Commercial Bank Investment Banking is now fully geared to offer a wide spectrum of fund-based and fee-based services, including financial instrument structures such as securitisations, project loans, syndicated term loans and margin trading, along with securities such as custodian services and escrow services and structuring and management of equity and debt issues.