Adjudged ‘Best Transaction Bank in Sri Lanka’ and ‘Best Trade Finance Bank in Sri Lanka’
The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been honoured with the awards for ‘The Best Transaction Bank in Sri Lanka’ and ‘The Best Trade Finance Bank in Sri Lanka’ at the 2018 Asian Banker Transaction Awards, adding two more prestigious titles to its extensive collection of accolades.
The Asian Banker Transaction Awards recognise Commercial Bank’s leadership in trade finance, payments processing, and payment services, as well as the results of a survey of domestic financial institutions that use the Bank’s trade finance, and in-depth interviews with the Bank’s senior management.
The assessment also took into consideration the growth of the Bank’s transactions revenue and transaction profit and overall income contribution of transaction services to the Bank.
These awards also recognise the transaction services provided by Commercial Bank to corporates and SMEs, usage rates and growth of digital banking, ERP systems, branches and other channels, its online banking facilities, the Bank’s client service improvement budget, IT budget for transaction services, and technology investment for 2018.
The level of connectivity and automation provided to corporate customers to access the Bank’s services, and the measures taken by the Bank in relation to risk management and compliance too were looked at as qualifiers for the awards.
Commenting on the receipt of these two awards, Commercial Bank’s Chief Operating Officer S. Renganathan said: “The comprehensive assessment conducted for these awards encompasses some of the most critically important areas of banking operations. These awards are therefore a valuable endorsement of how we have excelled in many fundamental aspects that are key to performance.”
The selection process for winning an Asian Banker Transaction Award is a rigorous one, completed over several months and involves feedback and interviews with all constituents who are in a position to comment on the candidates. It is anchored by a panel of global leaders and subject matter experts as advisors.
Notably, the Asian Banker Magazine named the Commercial Bank of Ceylon the ‘Strongest Bank in Sri Lanka’ in 2016 and 2017 after a detailed and transparent scorecard compiled and analysed following an independent assessment of six areas of balance sheet financial performance – the ability to scale, balance sheet growth, risk profile, profitability, asset quality and liquidity.
Incorporated in 2006, the Asian Banker Business Achievement Awards are widely acknowledged by the financial services industry as the highest possible accolades available to professionals and banks in the Asia Pacific region.
In conjunction with The Asian Banker Business Achievement Awards, The Asian Banker Transaction Banking Awards programme is run on a completely neutral basis and involves a team of researchers assessing over 200 submissions from financial institutions across the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.