Friday Dec 05, 2025
Friday Dec 05, 2025
Friday, 5 December 2025 05:41 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Gold Award - Team Pelawatte from Pelawatte Branch
The Silver Award - Team Q-bits from IS Audit
The Bronze Award - Team Spark Minds from Wattala Branch
The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has successfully concluded its Innovation Challenge, an ambitious platform to unleash the creativity of its employees under the theme ‘Digital Innovation in Customer Experience’ with the goal of harnessing emerging technologies to accelerate digital transformation and elevate customer experiences.
The Bank said this ground-breaking initiative, a first of its kind at this scale in Sri Lanka’s banking sector, was designed to empower staff across the branch network and head office departments to embrace a mindset of driving digital innovation and enhancing customer experience. By encouraging teams to develop practical and scalable solutions that address real customer interactions, the programme not only sought to generate ideas, but to deliver tangible outcomes that strengthen Commercial Bank’s strategic pillars of digitalisation and customer excellence.
“Our people are our greatest asset, and this Challenge has proven that when their creativity and passion are channelled towards innovation, the results are extraordinary,” said Mr Sanath Manatunge, Managing Director/CEO at Commercial Bank. “The Innovation Challenge is more than a competition – it is a catalyst for change that enables us to deliver better, faster, and more seamless experiences to our customers while preparing the Bank for the future. As a Bank with digitalisation at the core of its strategy, we are proud to see our staff designing solutions that can be implemented and scaled across the organisation. The winning proposals are working innovations that will directly enhance customer journeys and strengthen our position as a digital leader in the industry.”
Commenting on the outcome of the initiative, Mr Sumudu Gunawardhana, Chief Information Officer of Commercial Bank said: “In today’s financial landscape, the best ideas come from those closest to our customers, which is why our innovation strategy focuses on empowering frontline staff, branch teams and relationship managers who understand client needs first-hand. The Innovation Challenge brings that vision to life by providing the tools, mentorship and platform for grassroots ideas to grow, and it was inspiring to see colleagues use AI and data analytics to create practical solutions while breaking silos to solve real customer challenges. This initiative proves that with the right support, our people will shape the bank’s future, building a sustainable engine for innovation that keeps us agile, customer-centric and ahead in delivering exceptional banking experiences.”
The Challenge ran as a four-month innovation sprint and drew an enthusiastic response, with 112 teams comprising more than 600 staff members from branches and departments across the country. Each team consisted of three to ten members, and participants were required to register, submit detailed outlines of their proposed solutions, and refine these into prototypes for evaluation by a panel of judges.
From this wide pool, 12 teams were shortlisted and mentored by eight members of the corporate management to progress to the final stage, where their prototypes were presented before the judges. The competition culminated at the Bank’s Excellence Awards ceremony, where three winning teams were recognised with Gold, Silver, and Bronze Passes and attractive cash prizes. The Gold Award was won by Team Pelawatte from the Pelawatte Branch, and their solution was immediately implemented by the bank. The Silver Award went to Team Q-bits from IS Audit, while the Bronze Award was secured by Team Spark Minds from the Wattala Branch. The Bank confirmed that the winning entries, along with other shortlisted projects, will be developed and implemented.
The Bank emphasised that the Innovation Challenge was not merely a competition but an investment in cultivating a culture of innovation among its staff. By empowering employees at all levels to collaborate and experiment with new ideas, Commercial Bank said it had successfully channelled creativity into practical solutions that would directly improve customer experiences, internal processes, and overall service quality.
The first Sri Lankan bank with a market capitalisation of exceeding US$ 1 billion, Commercial Bank was also the first bank in the country to be listed among the Top 1000 banks of the world, and has the highest capital base among all Sri Lankan banks. The Bank is the largest private sector lender in Sri Lanka and the largest lender to the country’s SME sector. Commercial Bank is also a leader in digital innovation and is Sri Lanka’s first 100% carbon-neutral bank.
Commercial Bank operates a network of strategically located branches and automated machines island-wide, and has the widest international footprint among Sri Lankan banks, with 20 branches in Bangladesh, a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake in the Maldives, a microfinance company in Myanmar and a representative office in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The Bank’s fully owned subsidiaries, CBC Finance Ltd. and Commercial Insurance Brokers (Pvt) Limited, also deliver a range of financial services via their own branch networks.
