Kudos for Theagarajah and HNB at Asian Banker awards

• Out-going CEO/MD wins Asian Banker ‘Leadership Achievement Award 2013’ for Sri Lanka
• HNB named ‘Best Managed Bank in Sri Lanka’

Hatton National Bank Managing Director / CEO Rajendra Theagarajah was named the winner of the Asian Banker ‘Leadership Achievement Award 2013’ for Sri Lanka. Under his leadership, Hatton National Bank has also been recognised as the ‘Best Managed Bank in Sri Lanka’. Theagarajah received both awards at the Leadership Achievement Awards ceremony held in conjunction with the Asian Banker Summit 2013 at the Ritz Carlton Kuningan, Jakarta, on 23 April 2013.

The Asian Banker and the Council of Advisors for the Leadership Achievement Awards programme were impressed with Theagarajah’s achievements in the period under review. Under his leadership, the bank experienced solid growth in core banking profits above industry peers despite the challenges from the global economic crisis and a volatile local macro-economy.

HNB is the first Sri Lankan Bank to receive an International Credit Rating on par with a sovereign rating, due to the successful capital augmentation efforts to keep capital adequacy ratios well above industry peers.

Under Theagarajah, the bank developed a strong and robust risk management infrastructure through a progressive journey to implement the Basel IRB infrastructure for credit, operational and market risks. Theagarajah counts over 28 years of experience in banking including overseas assignments in Europe, Middle East and the African region. His leadership as the Managing Director and CEO of Hatton National Bank has not only helped the bank achieve strong financials with a robust and sophisticated business that straddles a broad range of business lines with strong fee-generating capabilities.

With the remarkable progress that the bank made under his leadership, Theagarajah rightfully won the ‘Leadership Achievement Award 2013’ which leads to the ‘Best Managed Bank’ award win. In 2010 Theagarajah was awarded the Asian Banker Leadership Achievement Award and is the only recipient to win this award for two successive three-year evaluation cycles.

The Leadership Achievement Award is a recognition programme that is run once every three years to assess the leadership of bank Chairmen and CEOs on their respective businesses and the industry as a whole. This is the most important award programme that the Asian Banker runs because it underscores the importance of sound, visionary leadership in directing the future of the industry and is considered the most prestigious award for individual achievement in the banking industry in the Asia Pacific region today. The award plays an important role in cultivating a culture of excellence amongst people in leadership positions.

The selection process behind the award programme is a highly rigorous one that takes stock of financial performance, the stated vision and strategy of bank’s leaders as well as actual achievements, the feedback of staff, customers, investors and industry stakeholders through various surveys, a study of the management team and finally is validated by an experienced council of advisors.

The Asian Banker is the region’s most authoritative provider of strategic business intelligence to the financial services community. The Singapore-based company has offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Shanghai as well as representatives in London, New York and San Francisco.

It has a business model that revolves around three core business lines: publications, research services and forums. The company’s website is www.theasianbanker.com.