Sri Lanka · Methodology
How we compare borrowing rates
One pipeline feeds the Loans, Leasing and Pawning boards. Here's where the numbers come from, what each one means, and the choices we make so banks compare fairly.
Where the numbers come from
We read each bank's own published rate board — the same source the bank shows its customers — and record every rate as a dated observation. Boards re-fetch daily; a rate only gets a new data point when the bank's effective rate actually moves, so a flat sparkline honestly means "unchanged". The date stamp on every row shows you how fresh the figure is.
Loans
The headline figure is the bank's broadly-applicable fixed APRfor a standard adult-retail customer at that term. Where a bank publishes a better rate for salary-routed or preferred customers, we show it as the "from" figure beneath — so you see both the rate most people get and the best achievable. Lower is better, so the lowest rate in each column is highlighted.
Fixed vs floating.Many loans are quoted as a margin over a benchmark — for example "AWPLR + 2.50%". The absolute rate moves with the benchmark, which the bank doesn't restate on its board. We're adding CBSL's AWPLR as a tracked series; once it's live, floating loans will show today's resolved rate alongside the formula. Until then the boards show fixed rates only, and say so.
Tenor bands ("4 to 5 years") are placed at the upper rung of the band. Niche and time-limited promotional rates are excluded from the comparison.
Leasing
Leasing is compared on the monthly rental per Rs 100,000 financed— the cash outflow, which is what a leaseholder actually budgets against. It already bakes in the rate and the term, so it's directly comparable across banks at the same tenor. Lower is better. Vehicle class (brand-new vs general) changes the rental, so it's a separate axis.
Pawning
Two numbers matter for gold pawning: the interest rate (lower is better) and the advance per sovereign — how much cash the bank lends against a sovereign of gold (higher means more liquidity). Rates are often banded by facility size, and the advance is banded by karat (22kt vs 24kt). We show both.
What we don't do
We don't rank or score banks here — these are factual rate boards. Your actual rate depends on the amount, term, security and the bank's credit assessment, so always confirm with the bank before applying. We hold no paid placements; ordering is by the rate alone. See our independence statement.