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The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been chosen for two accolades by International Finance Magazine (IFM), which has named it the ‘Best Domestic Bank’ and ‘Best SME Bank’ in Sri Lanka.
The ‘Best Domestic Bank’ award is in recognition of the bank’s profitability, size, revenue, stability, assets and similar metrics. For the financial year 2017, Commercial Bank reported total assets of Rs. 1.143 trillion, gross income of Rs. 115.6 billion, net profit of Rs. 16.5 billion, a deposits base of Rs. 850.1 billion and total loans and receivables of Rs. 754.7 billion.
The Best SME Bank award is in acknowledgement of the bank’s support to the SME sector, the number of loans disbursed to SMEs and its effort to enhance the knowledge of entrepreneurs through its capacity building workshops.
The assessment for the award also took into consideration Commercial Bank’s position as one of the highest lenders to the SME sector in Sri Lanka, having lent Rs. 130 billion to this segment in 2017 alone, which includes loans to commercial, agriculture, dairy, farming and industrial activities.
The bank’s 16 Agri and Micro Finance Units in rural areas with 20 officers to educate, lend and assist in the repayment of loans granted to micro-scale businesses and agriculture and its ‘Biz Club’ – a networking forum of the bank for entrepreneurs which provides new opportunities and other benefits to small and medium entrepreneurs - also contributed towards winning this award.
This is the third successive year that Commercial Bank has been honoured by International Finance. In 2016 too the bank was declared the ‘Best SME Bank’ in Sri Lanka and in 2017 the bank was recognised with the ‘Best Green Bank’ and ‘Best Private Bank’ awards.
The International Finance Awards recognises industry talent, leadership skills, industry net worth and capability on an international platform. After careful consideration of nominations by a qualified research team, winners are declared on the strength of their application and past accomplishments.
International Finance is a premium financial and business analysis magazine, published by the UK’s International Finance Publications Ltd. With a discerning focus on emerging markets, International Finance provides news, analysis and commentary from a range of industry experts, contributors and writers.
The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the world’s top 1000 banks for eight years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 262 branches and 780 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The bank has won more than 30 international and local awards in 2016 and 2017 and 16 international awards in the first six months of 2018.
Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon and a microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; the Maldives, where the bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake; and Italy, where the bank operates its own money transfer service.
