Euromoney awards HNB as best Trade Finance Bank in Sri Lanka

• Secures awards for ‘Market Leader in Trade Finance’ and ‘Best Service in Trade Finance’
• First time that a local bank has won for Trade Finance at Euromoney Awards

HNB, Sri Lanka’s leading private sector bank, was recently awarded by the prestigious Euromoney Magazine as the ‘Market Leader in Trade Finance’ and ‘Best Service in Trade Finance’ in Sri Lanka for the year 2019. These are a testimony to HNB’s pioneering role as the preferred bank for Trade Services. HNB is also the recipient of Euromoney Magazine’s ‘Best Cash Management Bank’ in Sri Lanka for 2018.

Deputy General Manager Corporate Banking Ruwan Manatunga

Assistant General Manager Trade and Financial Institutions Janath Ilangantileke

Euromoney Magazine is recognised globally as the most influential financial magazine and a leading source of information on finance, banking, investment, and treasury and is read and trusted by the world leading companies, bankers, brokers, investors, regulators and policy makers.

Euromoney magazine ranks providers of Trade Finance services on a global, regional and country level based on an annual survey of over 25,000 corporate cash managers, treasurers and finance officers worldwide. The Trade Finance award is based on an independent survey whereby corporates are given the opportunity to rate the quality of the service provided by their local and multinational relationship banks across products and services.

HNB Assistant General Manager, Trade and Financial Institutions Janath Ilangantileke said: “Winning these two prestigious awards from Euromoney is a proud moment for the Bank. These awards from Euromoney are the results of the hard work put in by HNB’s Trade Finance and Relationship Management teams to provide its Corporate and SME customers with solutions that create value that is world class.

“We believe in partnering with our customers to provide well-thought through Trade Financing solutions. We are proud of our Trade Finance business and will continue to innovate to keep abreast with the ever-changing demands of the local and global financial markets to support our customers in the years ahead.”

HNB offers to its clients the full complement of trade finance services – ranging from the complete structuring of trade financing facilities, issuing of letters of credit, letters of credit confirmation and negotiation of export documents to issuing of shipping guarantees and the facilitation of entrepôt trade business – the bank also places an equal emphasis on advisory services, awareness building workshops and networking of clients locally and globally.

Reflecting on HNB’s strength and dominant influence in Sri Lanka’s financial landscape as the preferred corporate banking partner of choice, HNB Deputy General Manager Corporate Banking Ruwan Manatunga noted that the confidence placed by corporates in HNB further encourages and supports the Bank to continue to invest in new technologies and teams. He also stressed that the Bank will continue to give leadership to the market and will further roll out world class innovative and customized solutions to its corporate clients.

HNB has the largest number of technically qualified staff and Certified Documentary Credit Specialists (CDCS) in the industry and their wealth of knowledge is used to provide advisory services that go above and beyond the traditional realm of trade business.

In order to further reassure customers of the service standards, HNB Trade Service operations were the first to secure ISO Certification in year 2004 and have since been upgraded to ISO 9001:2015 status, following stringent audits by M/s Bureau Veritas.

HNB is the first local bank to offer a web-based, fully integrated Trade Payments and Cash Management (PCM) platform – HNB Online. The bank, leveraging on this state-of-the- art platform along with a dedicated business team that is considered the best in the industry, has achieved significant success in securing a leadership position in trade finance, which was previously a dominant business of the multinational banks

Corporates using HNB Online have real time control over their day to day management of collections, payments and liquid investments whilst enterprise-level clients have the ability to integrate HNB Online directly with their Accounts Payables and Accounts Receivables of their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such as SAP and Oracle.

HNB’s electronic banking platform not only caters to payments and collection solutions but also offers a comprehensive online trade platform to support international trade finance business. HNB’s Trade Finance business offering covers corporates, ranging from multinationals, large local conglomerates, mid-market enterprises as well as Small and Medium sized Enterprises.

Operating across 251 branches island-wide HNB today stands as Sri Lanka’s largest, most successful and most innovative private sector commercial bank. The bank continues to win local and international accolades in recognition of its outstanding efforts in building a new paradigm of a digitally empowered banking experience in Sri Lanka.

HNB was recognised by the prestigious Banker Magazine as one of the Top 1,000 banks in the world and is also the highest ranked local bank in this listing. For the year 2017, the Banker Magazine awarded HNB as Bank of the Year. In addition, HNB was also awarded by Asian Banker as the Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka for 2017, which is the 10th time the Bank has received this award.

HNB today stands as the most profitable private banking group in the country, maintaining a strong and growing presence across retail, corporate and Micro and SME sectors, extending cutting edge banking and financial services to a wide range of clients.

HNB is the first local Bank in Sri Lanka to receive an international rating on par with the sovereign from Moody’s Investor Services while maintaining a national long term rating of AA - (lka) from Fitch Ratings Lanka Ltd.