Bank of Ceylon (BOC) is Sri Lanka’s first state-owned commercial bank and opened in 1939 under Bank of Ceylon Ordinance No. 53 of 1938.

BOC is a licensed commercial bank established under the Banking Act No. 30 of 1988.The registered office is situated at No. 01, BOC Square, Bank of Ceylon Mawatha, Colombo 01, Sri Lanka.

Today having completed nearly eight decades of glorious existence, the Bank is firmly entrenched as Sri Lanka’s premier financial services organization offering a broad range of services consisting of commercial banking, trade finance, development financing, mortgage financing, lease financing, investment banking, corporate financing, dealing in Government securities, pawn broking, credit card facilities, off-shore banking, foreign currency operations and other financial services. BOC is the largest bank in Sri Lanka and holds the leadership position in its assets, deposits, and foreign currency remittances.

Bank of Ceylon opened its first overseas branch in 1949 in London and thereafter in other overseas locations, namely Maldives, India and Seychelles.

In 2010, BOC diversified its operations in the United Kingdom by upgrading its London branch to a fully-fledged bank operating as a subsidiary of BOC that is being used as a platform for global banking and to attract more foreign investment to the country.