BOC launches newly transformed ‘Fortune’ branches

The Bank of Ceylon opened its third and fourth state-of-the-art branches to its valued customers at Kaduwela and Kadawatha recently. With the success from transforming Bambalaptiya and Maharagama as a part of the pilot project carried out with Boston Consultancy Group (BCG), the bank is in the process of rolling out the project to 200 other BOC branches covering every part of the country extending the privilege of experiencing the world class banking for the convenience of the bank’s customers. Meanwhile the bank’s newly transformed Kaduwela branch also moved to a more spacious location with ample parking space at No. 123A Colombo Road, Kaduwela on 6 July.

The newly transformed branches were ceremoniously opened by BOC Chairman, President’s Counsel Ronald C. Perera. BOC General Manager D.M. Gunasekara and Deputy General Manager Sales and Channel Management G.L.P. Jinasoma with others members of the bank’s corporate and executive management participated at this occasion. “Transformation is a key agenda of the bank to ensure we deliver to our customers the best possible banking experience in return for the trust that they have placed in us for over 75 years. We look forward to expanding this transformed branch concept further to cover every region and deliver this world class banking experience to the entire country,” stated Perera.  

The newly transformed branches boast of several features which offer customers an unparallel experience. Each customer counter is enabled to conduct all banking services at one point and at one sitting. All transactions including account opening, withdrawals and deposits can now be serviced at a single service point without going through the hassle of moving from queues at one counter to another.

 A state-of-the-art ‘Queue Management System’ has been installed and a spacious customer lobby has been created so that a customer no longer has to wait in standing queues but can be comfortably seated while waiting for his turn.  

A fully functional digital self service lobby called ‘Smart Zone’ has been set up to provide customers the convenience of any time banking. In addition to ATMs, Smart Zones also feature Cash Deposit Machines, Internet Banking kiosks and a provision for night banking services at branches that offer extended hours of service.

Each of the branches offer the bank’s newest product, ‘BOC SmartGen’. The new generation product is a passbook free account and provides customers free internet banking access, instant SMS alerts on transactions and monthly email statements. The product is the country’s first savings account which is fully active instantly. BOC SmartGen offers customers instant account opening, instant debit card issuance and instant access to internet banking. Additionally, customers who avail this product can enjoy universal banking at any BOC branch in the island as his photograph and signature will be captured digitally at the time of account opening.

The bank has undertaken a large scale project named ‘Wenesa’ in partnership with the world’s leading consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to completely transform the bank with the objective of offering customers across the nation a world class banking experience.

The Bank of Ceylon earned global recognition as one of the top 1,000 banks in the world, (Country rank No.1) as listed by ‘The Banker Magazine’ (UK) respectively in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The bank claimed its award as the only Sri Lankan brand recognised as one of Asia’s Best Brands in 2013 by the Chief Marketing Officer’s Council (CMO Council) based in Mumbai, India. Brand Finance Lanka ranked Bank of Ceylon as the country’s No. 1 brand for the last seven consecutive years. The bank has passed exceptional milestones in recent years such as becoming the first to gain over Rs. 1.0 trillion assets.

BOC has over 1,000 customer touch points covering all parts of Sri Lanka. Focusing on the bank’s achievement, Fitch Rating Lanka ranked the Bank of Ceylon at AA+(lka) which is the highest rating awarded to a local commercial bank and ICRA (lk) awarded AAA rating which is the highest credit quality rating issued by ICRA Lanka. Bank of Ceylon maintains international presence with branches in Chennai, Male, Seychelles and a subsidiary in London.