Commercial Bank wins international recognition for its green banking efforts

''Receives 2015 ACEF award for ‘Best Sustainability-Green Initiative’'

Commercial Bank’s DGM Marketing Hasrath Munasinghe (left) receives the ACEF Award

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s efforts to make its operations more eco-friendly have been acknowledged internationally with the award for ‘Best Sustainability – Green Initiative’ at the 2015 Asian Customer Engagement Forum (ACEF) Awards in Mumbai.

The only award presented by ACEF in the sustainability category, the award recognises the effectiveness of Commercial Bank’s initiatives to migrate customers from traditional banking channels to digital platforms such as mobile and online banking, as well as its investments in and efforts to promote automation to minimise the use of paper.

The award was accepted on behalf of the bank by its Deputy General Manager – Marketing Hasrath Munasinghe, who was also invited to be a panellist at the 5th Asian Customer Engagement Forum which preceded the awards ceremony. The ACEF Awards recognise excellence in marketing, sustainability and corporate social responsibility and are guided by a 21-member Advisory Board which has the credentials in advanced customer engagement work.

“Engaging with our customers to encourage use of electronic channels that benefit the environment is an important element of the bank’s overall commitment to the planet,” said S. Renganathan, Commercial Bank’s Chief Operating Officer/ Executive Director. 

“We have had tremendous success in building our mobile banking and online banking user base lately, and installed automated cash and cheque deposit machines at many branches. These efforts should contribute to significantly Greener operations.”

Over the past three years, Commercial Bank has added more than 200,000 Mobile Banking customers and over 100,000 Online Banking customers, and tripled the size of its mobile banking customer base in the past year. Efforts to promote use of these facilities are continuing.

Commercial Bank has also set up an Automated Banking Centre (ABC) at its Ward Place branch with the facilities to not only deposit cash and cheques and withdraw cash but also to open savings accounts, apply for retail loans and carry out online banking transactions. 

In addition, the bank has commissioned the first of a new generation of automated cash deposit terminals, creating a Green Banking Channel (GBC) that eliminates the use of paper for depositing cash at the Bank’s Rajagiriya branch, under its Green Banking agenda.

Commercial Bank operates a network of 244 branches and 616 ATMs in Sri Lanka and is the country’s largest private bank. The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for five consecutive years and ranked the most valuable private sector brand in the country in 2014, the bank was adjudged the Best Bank in Sri Lanka by Finance Asia and Euromoney 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 11 years. 

The bank has also been the second Most Respected Corporate entity in the country overall for the past five years in the LMD rankings, and has been rated No. 1 in Sri Lanka for Honesty in 2013, 2014, and 2015.