Bank of Ceylon extends ‘Branch on Wheels’

Thursday, 31 January 2019 01:34 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Left: Bank of Ceylon’s CEO/General Manager Senarath Bandara cutting the ribbon and ceremoniously opening the new ‘Branch on Wheel’ mobile vehicle. Right: Bank of Ceylon’s DGM Retail Banking Range 1 and Range 2 D.M.L.B. Dassanayaka, DGM Product and Banking Development M.J.P. Salgado, DGM Sales and Channel Management C. Amarasinghe and CEO/General Manager Senarath Bandara with the bank’s Assistant General Managers of respective provinces who received mobile branch vehicles at the ceremony

Bank of Ceylon’s mobile banking services were further expanded by adding four branches on wheels recently. These mobile branches are deployed to Western Province-South, Eastern, Central and North Central Provinces to assist communities of respective provinces to reach Bank of Ceylon’s banking services conveniently.

‘Branch on Wheels’ vehicles were handed over to the respective BOC Provincial Assistant General Managers of the above mentioned provinces at a ceremony held at the bank’s Head Office premises yesterday. The event took place with the patronage of the bank’s CEO/ General Manager Senarath Bandara and the corporate and executive management.

This mobile branch vehicle includes a teller counter, customer area, ATM, and a self-service kiosk. Furthermore, a wider range of banking services such as cash deposits and withdrawals, fund transfers, bill payments, accounts opening, applying for loans and internet banking are provided here. With the online connectivity the mobile branch has, a transaction that would be done at or through this branch would be updated real-time.The BOC ‘Branch on Wheels’ concept was introduced in line with the Government’s objective to bring in the un-bankable population in the country to the banking stream and to cater to communities who are difficult to reach by traditional methods of banking through extending modern banking facilities to customers in remote areas and building their confidence in the banking system. Even these modern banking facilities are hard to reach for some; therefore the mobile branch will go up to the customer breaking psychological and geographic barriers to make banking more feasible.

“Enabled as a part of the digital transformation, the Bank takes this initiative very seriously to ensure that the entire country is covered by assigning a mobile branch for each province. By doing so the bank expects to cater to wider ground area and reach a wider customer base touching places ranging from busy market places, schools, hospitals and all types of organisations or factories, at the convenience of the customer. The branch will be deployed according to a pre-decided schedule to operate as a routine branch. It will also serve as a service centre when mobilising special events in the region. BOC also strategically placing this as a part of a recovery plan to support relief operations in disaster situations to assist customers immediately in their time of need,” stated Bandara.

Digitally altering the Sri Lankan banking landscape, BOC pioneered to elevate the country’s banking industry significantly in par with the international standards bringing a world-class banking experience to its customers. With the responsibility of a bank with a State ownership, it has spread its wings across the country to cater to every Sri Lankan.