FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARY

Financial intermediary is an entity that acts as the middleman between two parties in a financial transactions, such as a commercial bank, investment banks, mutual funds and pension funds. Financial intermediaries offer a number of benefits to the average consumer, including safety, liquidity, and economies of scale involved in commercial banking, investment banking and asset management. Although in certain areas, such as investing, advances in technology threaten to eliminate the financial intermediary, disinter mediation is much less of a threat in other areas of  finance, including banking and insurance.

Benefits of Financial Intermediaries

Through a financial intermediary, savers can deposit their funds, enabling them to make large investments, which in turn benefit the entity in which they are investing. At the same time, financial intermediaries pool risk by spreading funds across a diverse range if investments and loans. Loans benefit households and countries by enabling them to spend more money than they have at the current time.

Licensed Specialized Banks

1. Housing Development Finance Corporation Bank of Sri Lanka (HDFC)
2. Lankaputhra Development Bank Ltd.
3. National Savings Bank "Savings House"
4. Pradeshiya Sanwardhana Bank
5. Sanasa Development Bank PLC
6. Sri Lanka Savings Bank Ltd
7. State Mortgage & Investment Bank

Licensed Commercial Banks

1. Amana Bank PLC
2. Axis Bank Ltd
3. Bank of Ceylon
4. Bank of China Ltd
5. Cargills Bank Ltd
6. Citibank, N.A.
7. Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC
8. Deutsche Bank AG
9. DFCC Bank PLC
10. Habib Bank Ltd
11. Hatton National Bank PLC
12. ICICI Bank Ltd
13. Indian Bank
14. Indian Overseas Bank
15. MCB Bank Ltd
16. National Development Bank PLC
17. Nations Trust Bank PLC
18. Pan Asia Banking Corporation PLC
19. People's Bank
20. Public Bank Berhad
21. Sampath Bank PLC
22. Seylan Bank PLC.
23. Standard Chartered Bank
24. State Bank of India
25. The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd (HSBC)
26. Union Bank of Colombo PLC