Hatton National Bank
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Hatton National Bank is a leading private (i.e., not government-owned) bank in Sri Lanka.
History
- 1888: RD Banks and AT Atkin established a small, private bank called Hatton Bank to cater to the needs of investors and laborers in Ceylon’s tea plantations.
- 1948: Sri Lanka attained its independence and Brown & Co., an engineering concern, bought the interests of the original investors.
- 1961: The Government of Sri Lanka forbade foreign banks to accept deposits from Ceylonese nationals.
- 1970: Hatton National Bank (HNB) was formed to take over Hatton Bank and the Kandy and Nuwara Eliya branches of Grindlays Bank. (Grindlays had inherited these branches from its merger with National Bank of India (NBI). NBI had established the branches in 1892. By giving up the two branches Grindlays earned the right to continue to operate its branch in Colombo, which NBI had established in 1881, serving corporate business.) A share issue shortly thereafter brought the ownership structure of Hatton Nation Bank to 37% Brown & Co., 28% National & Grindlays, and 35% public ownership.
- 1974: HNB acquired Mercantile Bank of India’s branches in Pettah and Colombo as well as a part interest in Mercantile (a subsidiary of HSBC since 1959, which retained its branch in Colombo).
- 1989: HNB acquired Dubai’s Emirates Bank’s branch in Columbo and with it a Foreign Currency Banking Unit.
- 1996: HNB acquired Banque Indosuez’s Colombo branch, which dated from 1979 or '80.
- 1997 Mr. Don. Harold (Harry) Stassen Jayawardena, arguably the country’s most powerful businessman, who had been charged for defrauding customs to the tune of billions in rupees, was again charged for violating Central Bank directives by obtaining 35.97% of the issued share capital of the Hatton National Bank, all most double the allowable limit of 18%.
- 2000: HNB opened a representative office in Karachi, Pakistan, and another in Chennai, India. Harry Jayawardena, in a hostile and highly resisted bid, acquired 44% or more of Sampath Bank via HNB (9%), Stassen Holdings and other related and nominally unrelated entities. (Sampath Bank commenced operations in 1987 as the Investment and Credit Bank, and was originally promoted as a Buddhist Bank but later presented as a financial institution of and for the “sons of the soil.”) HNB made controversial purchases of Sampath Bank shares and also invested in shares of the DFCC Bank.
- 2002: HNB acquired the Sri Lankan branches of Habib Bank A.G. Zurich. It planned to use them as the base for Islamic banking.
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