The Hon. (Dr.) Anil Jayantha — Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning

20 February 2026 ·Debate: Ministerial Statements: Credit Expansion and State Security Mechanism

Public Finance

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In response to Hon. Ravi Karunanayake’s question under Standing Order 27(2), the Minister provided Central Bank data showing a recovery and rapid expansion of private sector credit through banks and non-bank financial institutions from 2023 to 2025. He detailed growth in pawning/gold-backed loans, leasing, hire purchase and credit card outstanding balances, noting that pawning, leasing and credit cards accounted for Rs. 539.1 billion, or 27.7 per cent, of the increase in private sector credit. He also reported declining non-performing loan ratios in most categories, while noting the Central Bank’s tightening of loan-to-value caps for motor vehicle-backed credit due to strong portfolio growth. The Minister stated that detailed credit data are published regularly by the Central Bank and are available through its statistical bulletins and website.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, the answer to the question raised by the Hon. Ravi Karunanayake under Standing Order 27(2) on 18 December 2025 is as follows:

¶ 02 1) Outstanding credit to the private sector by LCBs (Rs. bn), YoY change: - End 2023: 7,366.4; -Rs. 45.0 bn; -0.6% - End 2024: 8,156.0; +Rs. 789.6 bn; +10.7% - End 2025: 10,212.2; +Rs. 2,056.1 bn; +25.2%

¶ 03 2) Outstanding credit to the private sector by the non-bank financial sector (Rs. bn), YoY change: - End 2023: 1,322.7; -Rs. 24.2 bn; -1.8% - End 2024: 1,599.8; +Rs. 277.1 bn; +21.0% - End 2025: 2,388.7; +Rs. 788.9 bn; +49.3%

¶ 04 3) Outstanding Pawning/Gold-backed credit (Rs. bn), growth: - Banks: 2023: 149.7; 2024: 188.5; Sep 2025: 227.6 (29.8%, 25.9%) - Finance Companies: 2023: 658.8; 2024: 792.0; Sep 2025: (33.0%, 20.5%) - All Banks: 2023: 696.4; 2024: 847.3; Sep 2025: 1,019.6 (32.3%, 21.7) - FCs: 2023: 219.7; 2024: 286.8; Sep 2025: 403.5 (-4.4%, 30.5) [as per table]

¶ 05 4) Outstanding leasing by banks (Rs. bn): - LCBs: 2023: 237.5; 2024: 295.8; Jan–Sep 2025: 422.8 - LSBs: 2023: 6.9; 2024: 9.2; Jan–Sep 2025: 13.4 - All Banks: 2023: 244.4; 2024: 305.0; Jan–Sep 2025: 436.2

¶ 06 Outstanding leasing and hire purchase by finance companies (Rs. bn): - Finance leasing: 2023: 526.8; 2024: 609.1; Jan–Sep 2025: 727.6 - Hire purchase: 2023: 36.9; 2024: 35.8; Jan–Sep 2025: 24.6 - Total: 563.6; 644.8; 752.2

¶ 07 Credit cards outstanding (Rs. bn) – figures as per table.

¶ 08 Summary of increase (pawning/leasing/credit cards) in value and % growth provided in the tables.

¶ 09 7) NPL (Stage 3 loans/total loans) ratios (%): - Banks: - Pawning/Gold loans: 2023: 0.7; 2024: 0.3; Jan–Sep 2025: 0.3 - Leasing: 9.2; 4.2; 2.7 - Credit cards: 6.7; 5.1; 4.3 - Finance Companies: - Pawning/Gold loans: 6.0; 1.8; 1.0 - Leasing: 20.2; 12.6; 8.4 - Credit cards: 17.5; 13.4; 29.2

¶ 10 8) Annual increase 2023–2025 (Jan–Sep 2025) in rupees: - Pawning/Gold loans: Rs. 133.2 bn - Leasing: Rs. 127.0 bn - Credit cards: Rs. 10.6 bn Contribution of pawning/leasing/credit cards to total private sector credit increase: - (A) Total increase (three products): Rs. 539.1 bn - (B) Change in private sector credit (M4): Rs. 1,944.3 bn - (C) Contribution: 27.7%

¶ 11 9) The Central Bank tightened LTV caps on motor-vehicle-backed credit in view of strong YoY growth in those portfolios.

¶ 12 10) The Central Bank publishes detailed sectoral credit quarterly since June 2010, and monthly LCB loans and advances since April 2025. Data available on the CBSL website (Monthly Bulletin; Monetary Sector Statistics; Monthly Bulletin of Monetary and Interest Rate Statistics). Monetary and Financial Surveys, including monthly private sector credit, have been publicly available since Dec 1991 and Dec 1998, respectively.

¶ 13 Thank you.

Provenance

Source: Hansard, Friday, 20 February 2026 ·No. 23331 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Anil Jayantha — Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 20 February 2026. No. 23331. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/29933