Commercial Bank is Euromoney’s Best Bank in Sri Lanka in 2015

Euromoney, widely considered one of the world’s leading financial magazines, has adjudged Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC the Best Bank in Sri Lanka in 2015 at the magazine’s Asia Awards for Excellence presented recently in Hong Kong.

This is the second major international award presented to Commercial Bank in the past two months, during which the Bank also had the distinction of becoming the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for five consecutive years.

The prestigious Euromoney accolade is based on detailed submissions from market participants and extensive year-round research into the banking and capital markets in the region by the magazine’s editors, journalists and research team.

According to Euromoney, the Asia Awards are seen as the benchmark for the leading firms in financial services in the region, and are fiercely contested across numerous markets and categories.

Country awards in the larger markets in Asia-Pacific included the award for Best Bank in Australia which went to Suncorp; Best Bank in China to ICBC; Best Bank in India to Kotak Mahindra Bank and Best Bank in Singapore to OCBC. Elsewhere, the Best Bank in Hong Kong went to HSBC, Best Bank in Indonesia to Bank Central Asia, Best Bank in Malaysia to Public Bank and Best Bank in New Zealand to ANZ.

“We are further strengthened with this very credible award, which is based on evaluation criteria applied to banks across global markets and regions,” Commercial Bank’s Managing Director and CEO Jegan Durairatnam said. “We are grateful to the millions of Commercial Bank customers whose patronage has made this award possible, and to the entire team whose passion and commitment keep the Bank in the vanguard of the industry.”

The evaluation by Euromoney covers banks in all major countries in Asia, Middle East, Europe, Africa, North and Latin America, the Caribbean as well as the Nordic and Baltic regions. Euromoney honours institutions that demonstrate leadership, innovation and momentum in the markets in which they excel and presents a number of awards to the Asian region’s banks and securities houses.

Among the aspects examined for the awards are qualitative and quantitative criteria such as market position, volume of business transacted, new product development, management system, credit ratings, efficiency ratios and annual key performance indicators.

In the year reviewed for the award, Commercial Bank reported profit before tax of Rs. 15.7 billion, a loan book of Rs. 463.6 billion, deposits of Rs. 529.4 billion, gross income of Rs. 74.4 billion, assets of Rs. 795.6 billion and Tier I Capital Adequacy Ratio of 12.93%.

The award for the Best Bank in Sri Lanka in 2015 was accepted by Commercial Bank’s Chief Operating Officer/Executive Director S. Renganathan at the presentation ceremony at Island Shangri La, Hotel Hong Kong. Leading figures from banking and capital markets across Asia were present to hear the announcement of Euromoney’s Asia Awards for Excellence 2015.

Founded by Sir Patrick Sergeant in 1969, Euromoney is read by 140,000 of the world’s top financial decision makers in more than 100 countries, making it the prime magazine of the wholesale financial world, its institutions and its users.

Commercial Bank operates a network of 243 branches and 613 ATMs in Sri Lanka. Ranked the most valuable private sector brand in the country in 2014, the Bank was adjudged the Best Bank in Sri Lanka by FinanceAsia in 2015.

Commercial Bank has also won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s best bank from other international publications over several years. The Bank was adjudged one of Sri Lanka’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in 2013 and 2014, and has been rated the Most Respected Bank in Sri Lanka by LMD for the past 10 years.

The Bank has also been the second Most Respected Corporate entity in the country overall for the past four years in the LMD rankings, and has been rated No. 1 in Sri Lanka for Honesty in 2013 and 2014 by the magazine.