100 years of Commercial Bank of Ceylon

This year the Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC celebrates 100 years of banking in Sri Lanka. This bank is the largest private sector commercial bank in Sri Lanka today.

The origin of this bank as Eastern Bank in 1920, opened its branch at Chatham Street in Fort. Barclays Bank acquired the shares of Eastern Bank during the 1930s and in 1940s. In 1957, Chartered Bank bought over the shares of Barclays Bank along with the shares of the main shareholders family. In 1969, Chartered Bank converted to Eastern Bank of Ceylon in Ceylon to the local bank named as Commercial Bank of Ceylon Ltd.

The first Chairman of Commercial Bank of Ceylon Plc, was the Late Justice V. Manikkavasakar, in 1969. Former Chief Justice Sripavan is in the Board of Directors since April 2017, as Non-Executive Director.

Commercial Bank is the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the World’s Top 1000 Banks, since 2008 consecutively, with many more international and local awards obtained during the past few years. Commercial Bank has over 265 branches in Sri Lanka with about 5,000 employees working in the bank.

During this Centenary year, Commercial Bank’s main project focus is ‘Smart Classrooms on Science and Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to be established in 100 schools in Sri Lanka’.

This project is to encourage the students after their Ordinary and Advanced Levels examination to create more technicians, engineers, etc. on the technical field; to establish with various career options with profitability.

Commercial Bank has a dynamic team led by Chairman Dharma Deerasinghe, Managing Director/CEO Sivakrishnarajah Renganathan along with Deputy Chairman M.P. Jayawardena and Non-Executive, Non-Independent Directors on the Board who have been instrumental in developing Commercial Bank as a Most Awarded Bank in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives and in Italy.

With the sudden entry of the COVID-19, much pressure is being put on the economic conditions of the country. Banking governance is to be applied to overcome the present economic conditions.

I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all the employees from all sections for their support and cooperation and for a successful journey of the bank towards the sustainable growth.

A.K. Gnanakanthan

Colombo 06