Commercial Bank wins dual honours at International Finance awards

• Adjudged ‘Best Green Bank’ and ‘Best Private Bank’ in Sri Lanka in 2017 by top UK magazine

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been honoured on the international stage with two more prestigious awards, being adjudged ‘Best Green Bank’ and ‘Best Private Bank’ in Sri Lanka by International Finance Magazine (IFM) of the UK, which is read in over 185 countries worldwide.

The Best Green Bank award recognises the catalytic role Commercial Bank has played in promoting environmental sustainability through its lending for renewable energy projects and other initiatives that help reduce the environmental footprint of its clients, as well as the bank’s own efforts to make its operations eco-friendly.

The International Finance Best Private Bank award is presented to the banks which have introduced innovative banking products and offer a wide range of services to its customers, regardless of size, public or private status. The assessment covers a wide spectrum of indicators including Range of services offered; Profitability; Client relationship; Innovative banking solutions; Management excellence and contribution to society; CSR; Innovation; Wealth management solutions; Net income; Global private banking assets under management and Net new assets.

“This has been a year of awards for Commercial Bank,” commented the bank’s Managing Director and CEO Jegan Durairatnam. “The culture at Commercial Bank discourages resting on one’s laurels and instead advocates constantly looking for ways to serve our customers better. The many international and local awards we have won in 2017 affirm the importance of this approach and are a tribute to the passion and professionalism of the entire team.”

This is the second successive year that Commercial Bank has been honoured by International Finance. In 2016 the Bank was declared the ‘Best SME Bank’ in Sri Lanka by IFM for “making a significant difference and adding value, and achieving the highest standards of innovation and performance’ for Small and Medium Enterprise clients.”

Among the international banks recognised in different categories at this year’s IFM Awards are Standard Chartered Bank (in Bangladesh), MayBank (in Cambodia), Al Ahli Bank and Gulf Bank (Kuwait), Banco Nacional Ultramarino S.A. (Macau), United Bank of Africa and First Bank of Nigeria (Nigeria), Habib Bank (Pakistan), DBS Bank (Singapore) CTBC Bank (Taiwan) and Maritime Bank and Sacombank (Vietnam).

Commercial Bank operates a network of 256 branches and 700 ATMs in Sri Lanka and has won more than 25 international and local awards in 2016 and 2017.  Earlier this year the Bank was named Sri Lanka’s Best Bank by the USA based Global Finance; was adjudged the ‘Best Domestic Bank’ and the ‘Best Digital Bank’ in Sri Lanka by Asiamoney; was recognised as the Best Bank in Sri Lanka by FinanceAsia; the bank’s website was adjudged the best in Sri Lanka’s financial sector at the inaugural SLT Zero One Awards and the bank was ranked among the Top 1000 Banks of the World for the seventh consecutive year. The bank also won two awards from International Banker – UK in 2017, being adjudged ‘Best Commercial Bank of the Year’ and receiving the award for ‘Best Innovation in Retail Banking.’

Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the bank operates 19 outlets, Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon, 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.