IFC’s $50 Million In Support to Commercial Bank of Ceylon to Boost Finance for Small Businesses in Sri Lanka Amid COVID-19

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing a $50 million loan to Commercial Bank of Ceylon (ComBank), Sri Lanka’s largest private bank, to help small and medium businesses in the country deal with the adverse economic impacts of COVID-19. The funding will be used to expand lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, with over a third dedicated to businesses owned by women.

The financing package is part of IFC’s US$8 billion global COVID-19 fast track financing facility, which aims to help companies stay in business and preserve jobs. This investment comes under the Working Capital Solutions Program of the facility, which provides $2 billion in funding to emerging-market banks to extend credit to help businesses shore up their working capital so firms can pay their bills and workers.