HNB recognised as Market Leader, Best Service in Trade Finance by Euromoney

HNB Deputy General Manager – Wholesale Banking Group Damith Pallewatte

HNB Head of Trade Rozanne De Almeida

Sri Lanka’s leading private sector bank, HNB PLC, continued to showcase its market leadership in international trade services after being declared Sri Lanka’s ‘Best Service in Trade Finance’ and ‘Market Leader in Trade Finance’ for 2023 by the Euromoney Magazine. 

Notably, this year marks the fourth time that HNB has been recognised by Euromoney with awards for Trade Finance, making it the first home-grown Sri Lankan bank to achieve a dominant leadership position in international trade services. 

“At a time when our nation faces historic economic headwinds, these prestigious accolades from Euromoney help to further validate our international trade services teams’ mission to transform Sri Lankan trade.  

“Moving forward, we remain committed to consistently delivering best-in-class trade finance services and facilitating growth opportunities for Sri Lankan enterprise in order to help revitalise the national economy,” HNB Managing Director/CEO Jonathan Alles stated.    

The Euromoney Trade Finance Survey recognises the leading providers of trade finance products and services on a global, regional and country level based on an annual survey of over 25,000 corporates, cash managers, treasurers and finance officers worldwide. 

“HNB’s ability to continuously innovate and deliver service excellence in our Trade Finance business stems from a potent combination of superior technical expertise and unmatched technological capacity. As a result, we are able to offer some of the most advanced, streamlined and reliable Trade Finance services in Sri Lanka – from complete structuring of Trade Financing facilities, issuing of Letters of Credit and Negotiation of Export documents to issuing of Shipping Guarantees and the facilitation of Entrepôt trade business.” 

“Our uniqueness further extends to our ability to provide solutions through our deep insights into customer requirements. This is underpinned by our reputation among leading global banks who collaborate with us to provide tailored solutions to all stakeholders in the value chain. Our 900+ correspondent banking network that includes all top tier banks in the world gives us the dynamism to be a true partner in progress for all of our customers’ international trade requirements,” HNB Deputy General Manager – Wholesale Banking Group Damith Pallewatte said. 

HNB has one of the largest pool of Certified Documentary Credit Specialists among Sri Lankan banks. These highly skilled professionals combine innovative technology with unmatched technical expertise in order to provide simple, user-friendly solutions even for complex transactions, risk mitigation and trade finance, encapsulating the end-to-end process of a trade transaction, leading to greater confidence amongst the bank’s trade customers. 

Certified as ISO 9001 2015, HNB Trade is a one-stop-shop trade services provider with a fully-fledged International Trade Services arm under the bank’s Wholesale Banking Group (WBG) vertical. The Trade team is committed to deliver fast, efficient, reliable and comprehensive solutions for every stage of a client’s trade value chain, to support clients’ evolution in line with the ever-changing cross border and domestic trade requirements. 

“We are delighted that the International Trade Services team’s efforts in supporting our valued clients to continue pursuing growth in the face of such historic challenges has won such prestigious recognition. While our nation still faces many difficult hurdles, we remain determined to continue leveraging our people, technology, processes and data to enable transformative growth at every level of the Sri Lankan economy,” HNB Head of Trade Rozanne De Almeida said. 

HNB adopts a unique approach to Trade Finance, by seamlessly integrating customer facing operations with centralised assessment of credit/compliance and centralised processing in order to provide an unbeatable customer experience.  

The bank’s extensive island-wide brick and mortar branch network serves as the first point of contact for trade customers. These operations are supplemented by a multitude of alternate channels such as online trade, internet banking and secure communication providing both customer convenience and expeditious transaction processing.

In order to offer maximum convenience to customers seeking import or export documentation within the shortest possible time-frame, HNB’s Centralised International Trade Services Department is located at Janadhipathi Mawatha in close proximity to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Import and Export Control Department, Sri Lanka Customs, Shipping and Logistics providers and other regulatory and statutory authorities. 

Over the past three years, HNB has also effectively leveraged its extensive partner network to further enhance opportunities for Sri Lankan enterprises – from MSMEs to corporate bluechips. These include innovative collaborations with the Asian development Bank to offer discounted access to sought-after value adding solutions. 

HNB also serves as strategic banking partner to the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE), and has also partnered with e-commerce platform Cord360.com to support exporters and ventures of local manufacturers to engage in new global supply chains. The partnership provides buyers and sellers with a “one-stop-shop” solution by engaging all HNB partners to support exports in areas of finance, logistics, packaging and market access through www.cord360.com. 

With 256 customer centres, HNB is one of Sri Lanka’s largest, most technologically innovative private banks. Consolidating its legacy in sustainability, good governance and corporate excellence, HNB was crowned the Best Corporate Citizen for 2022 at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Best Corporate Citizen Awards. The bank further secured 4 additional accolades including being ranked among the Top 10 Best Corporate Citizens and taking home the Governance category and Sustainability Champion for the Finance sector titles. 

Additionally, HNB was ranked among the World Top 1,000 Banks list compiled by the prestigious UK-based Banker Magazine for the sixth consecutive year in 2022, in addition to being crowned the Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka for the 12th occasion at the prestigious International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards 2022 hosted by the Asian Banker Magazine.