Cargills Bank has announced an expanded strategic partnership with Intellect Design Arena Ltd., selecting the Composable eMACH.ai Core Banking Architecture to drive its next major phase of digital transformation. This comprehensive modernisation programme spans Core Banking, Lending, Trade Finance, and Treasury, establishing a unified, cloud-ready technology foundation designed to support the bank’s long-term growth and operational resilience over the coming decade.

By building on a trusted, long-standing relationship, the upgrade empowers Cargills Bank to streamline critical capabilities such as customer onboarding, deposits, payments, loan origination and management, limits and collateral management, trade finance, and treasury. Guided by Intellect’s Design Thinking philosophy and First Principles approach, the initiative aims to accelerate product innovation, enhance customer experiences, and deliver simpler, smarter, and more personalised banking services.

Executives from both organisations highlighted the mutual benefits of the collaboration. Indika Fernando, Chief Information Officer of Cargills Bank, emphasised the bank’s ongoing commitment to investing in technologies that improve the customer experience and support expansion ambitions. Similarly, Ramanan SV, CEO for India and South Asia at Intellect Design Arena, noted that the unified architecture combines operational excellence with continuous innovation to serve the bank, its customers, and the broader financial ecosystem.

Sri Lanka’s leading tyre manufacturer CEAT Kelani Holdings (CKH) has retained its National Long-Term Rating of ‘AA+(lka)’ with a ‘Stable Outlook’ from Fitch Ratings for the sixth consecutive year, reinforcing the company’s sustained financial resilience and established leadership in Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre manufacturing sector.

The ‘AA+(lka)’ rating is the second-highest national rating on Fitch’s scale and reflects a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments. In affirming the rating, Fitch said CKH’s established leadership in the domestic pneumatic tyre manufacturing sector and resilient financial profile were key strengths, while noting the company’s exposure to price-sensitive, cyclical and highly competitive end-markets.

The Stable Outlook reflects Fitch’s expectation that CKH will maintain its market position amid rising input costs and intensifying competition from imported tyres. It also reflects Fitch’s expectation that the company will preserve adequate credit metrics despite periods of weaker earnings and elevated investment requirements.

CEAT Kelani Holdings Chairman Chanaka De Silva said: ” For CEAT Kelani, maintaining this rating through successive cycles reinforces the importance we place on disciplined stewardship, operational adaptability and investment in the long-term strength of the business. We remain focused on building a stronger, more competitive and increasingly capable manufacturing enterprise that can create sustainable value for all our stakeholders.”

Flash Health has partnered with McLarens Group to integrate the conglomerate’s employees into its Cashless OPD platform, while separately collaborating with St. Joseph Hospital in Negombo to provide regional home laboratory and medicine delivery services.

The Cashless OPD system allows eligible workers to utilize outpatient services—such as online medical consultations, prescribed drug deliveries, and home lab testing—without requiring upfront out-of-pocket payments or complex reimbursement paperwork. Currently managing healthcare access for over 3,000 lives, the platform is part of a broader HealthOS ecosystem serving upwards of 50,000 users.

For employers, the model optimizes financial management by tying benefit funding directly to actual healthcare utilization rather than requiring lump-sum advance allocations, thereby lowering administrative burdens. This expansion incorporates the workforce of McLarens Group, a major Sri Lankan enterprise with operations across logistics, energy, distribution, property, and leisure sectors.