AS ONE OF SRI LANKA’S most prolific private sector Banks, Commercial Bank of Ceylon boasts of a prominent history and a heritage of trust among its esteemed clientele. The largest private Bank in Sri Lanka in terms of profits, assets, deposits, loans, network of branches and ATMs, Commercial Bank is the leader in technological innovations that has revolutionalized the local banking arena. The local private bank with the largest international footprint has a vision to achieve the status of a “World Class Regional Bank”.
Commercial Bank is leveraging technology, taking giant strides in areas of digitisation and other consumer-centric technologies. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer S. Renganathan speaks to Echelon about exciting new initiatives and challenges in the horizon, and the bank’s plans for the future.
What are some of Commercial Bank’s most notable achievements over the past 10 years?
Commercial Bank is Sri Lanka’s first private sector bank to venture overseas in the year 2003 by acquiring Banking operations in Bangladesh. Subsequently, in the last 3 years we entered Maldives establishing a new tier 1 Bank with a majority stake, and established a representative office and a Micro Finance Company in Myanmar. Today, Commercial Bank has the largest international presence enjoyed by a private Bank. Other notable achievements include achieving 1 trillion assets, another first for a private bank in Sri Lanka. The Bank’s stellar performance has gained many awards both from international and local bodies. ComBank was the pioneer to introduce the Supermarket Banking and Holiday Banking concepts to Sri Lanka. Another unique concept the Bank introduced in the year 2011 is ABC (Automated Banking Centres). These are automated kiosks located within the branch premises offering 24/7 services ranging from deposits, withdrawals, applying for personal loans, fund transfers and opening new accounts. The Bank also has ventured into serving different customer segments with tailor made products and services which has substantially expanded our customer base. The Bank has emerged as the leader in technological innovations in the industry, having launched over 20 “Sri Lanka’s first” products within the past 3 years.
What digital transformation has Commercial Bank undergone to keep up with the needs of the 21st century customer?
The Bank is working on implementing new technologies such as AI and data analytics as part of a total digital transformation. We’re very aware of rapidly changing customer needs, and have implemented strategic plans to cater to the growing demand. Apart from opening up more digital channels and introducing new products that cater to the 21st century customer, the Bank has improved operational procedures facilitating a seamless banking experience to customers.
What are the next steps in the Bank’s process of growing and evolving?
The Bank will constantly strive to delight its stakeholders through innovative product offerings, service excellence, and cutting edge technology, creating significant convenient, honest and transparent business practices that are sustainable. The Bank will place heavy emphasis on automation and investing on digitization not only to create customer convenience, but also to ensure security of our systems. Sustainability and green banking will be another focus area. The Bank recognizes the changing customer perceptions and behaviour, and will focus on CRM and big data to understand their needs better.
Tell us about Commercial Bank’s goals and plans for the next 5 year horizon in terms of new products and improved services.
The Bank will continue its efforts in automation and channel migration by employing superior technology to create customer convenience, while continuously focusing on delighting our customers with excellent service. The Bank will be focusing on its mission to become a “World Class Regional Bank” and looking out for strategic expansion within the region. In keeping with the times and the changes in macro and micro economic and social factors, the Bank will keep introducing products and services to serve our diverse customer groups.
How is Commercial Bank evolving to meet the needs of the future?
As the largest private Bank in Sri Lanka we aim to grow with the nation. We are mindful that we serve five important stakeholders – our shareholders, employees, customers, communities and the nation. We’ve been involved in several important projects, from the government’s Enterprise Sri Lanka, which encourages entrepreneurs, to CSR programmes that aims to empower children through IT education, which merges technology into the classroom for a 21st century education. We’re involved in significant internal green initiatives such as green buildings, and are also getting our customers involved by encouraging them to use our automated services as much as possible. With strategic short term and long term plans and a capable and talented management team, the Bank is well geared to face the future confidently.
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ommercial Bank’s Chief Operating Officer, Sanath Manatunge speaks to Echelon about the Bank’s commitment to CSR projects, and operational initiatives that have cemented it as one of Sri Lanka’s most community-oriented financial institutions.How has Commercial Bank contributed to the development of local communities?
The Commercial Bank CSR Trust was established in 2004, and its main focus has evolved towards uplifting education. The Bank has worked extensively in the field of IT education. Our journey began with the donation of IT laboratories to schools islandwide, and we have donated 180 to date. We also commenced portal ‘Sipnena.’ This provides students with free access to educational content, in line with local syllabi. Taking online education further, the Bank also empowered teachers with globally recognized certifications. The Bank is also a key contributor to the nationwide initiative “Smart School”, where school children are introduced to digital learning.
Math Labs, supported by the Bank is a project initiated to stimulate and develop the mathematical and analytical skills of children, via 70 interactive mathematical games and activities.
How important is innovation, and how has Commercial Bank leveraged it?
Despite being a highly regulated industry, I think there is ample room for innovation, as demonstrated by banks, specially in the digital space. Our customers are going digital, and if we want to make an impact, we need to be where they are. For instance, Commercial Bank introduced the Flash Digital Banking platform last year. It is more than just a mobile banking application. It acts as a mobile wallet, and allows group payments with your smartphone, QR code transactions, and more. Apart from the traditional financial transactions, Flash allows you to save with a goal in mind and basically facilitates your financial health through effective budgeting tools. The Bank is very much focused on innovation and is ready to invest in technology that matters in the day to day lifestyles of our customers. Other recent innovations include the introduction of Chinese payment platforms – AliPay and WeChat Pay for the first time, and putting Sri Lanka in the global map by becoming the 51st country to launch UnionPay Cards, the largest card issuer in the world.
What is Commercial Bank’s philosophy that drives its engagement in sustainability and green banking?
Commercial Bank has always adopted a triple bottom line approach and focused on adopting sustainable business practices and introducing “green” products to our customers. Commercial Bank is one of the first Banks to adopt the Social and Environment Management System (SEMS) framework, which is an international framework to determine the environmental impact of projects.
This framework enables us to ensure that the projects we lend to do not adversely affect the environment or the communities. Our focus has been to introduce a range of ‘green’ products and also on getting customers onboard for our digital channels for a sustainable future. Operationally the Bank has internally adopted many green measures by converting our buildings to green buildings, installing solar panels in selected branches, responsible e-waste disposal and many such initiatives.
What is the level of emphasis placed on customer service?
Customer service excellence is and had been the most important aspect of our service offering. We do understand that excellent customer service is a combination of robust and advanced infrastructure, a versatile product offering and competent people carrying out their duties with passion. With a strategically located branch network, consisting of a large number of holiday banking branches, and the largest networkof ATMs owned by a private Bank, Commercial Bank is well geared to serve all its customers.
It is also pertinent to mention that service excellence is not a destination, but a continuing journey. Therefore, our Bank always considers investing in talent, technology and infrastructure that is relevant to evolving customer needs, and is the key to success.
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LEADING FROM THE FRONT
Commercial Bank’s management team comment on key focus areas for the next 05 years to create winning strategies
FINANCE
“With the migration to IFRS 9, the latest accounting system, the focus of the Finance department will be on ensuring an adequate provision buffer to meet any challenges in sustaining profits. Maintaining a healthy capital adequacy ratio in the context of challenges faced with compliance with BASEL III requirements is also a focus area. We will be diligently working towards ensuring that the Bank stays on par with its regional counterparts in leveraging the latest accounting and quality systems.”
Nandika Buddhipala
Chief Financial Officer
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
“Our focus is to work on building relevant capabilities to meet the Bank’s future challenges. We have set ourselves a very ambitious plan for growth, and our staff is key to achieving these corporate objectives. We are committed to strengthening the capabilities of our staff to deliver high levels of customer satisfaction, innovation and overall profitability. Another focus area is attracting new talent that would add value to the Bank’s existing human capital, through new recruitment schemes and talent management programmes.”
Isuru Tillakawardana
Deputy General Manager- Human Resource Management
MARKETING & CARDS
“We intend to leverage our iconic national brand status to reach a wider customer segment locally, and to capitalize on the Bank’s international presence to take the brand global. Our intense focus will be on introducing innovative banking products for relevant segments through strategic marketing activities. The Cards business will focus on introducing Cards for specialized segments, and enhancing value additions and benefits offered to cardholders through technological innovations. In the space of card-based payment platforms, we aspire to be the leader by introducing state-of-the-art payment methods including QR code-based payments.”
Hasrath Munasinghe
Deputy General Manager – Marketing
PERSONAL BANKING
“We will continue to focus heavily on digital, as many ambitious plans are underway in this area. The lifecycle analysis of products will be conducted with a view to ensure freshness, relevance and competitiveness. The Bank will also focus on championing customer service excellence, while analysing market conditions and customer lifestyles to help fill any existing market gaps. Developing small and medium businesses would be another key focus area, with emphasis on gender diversity in formulating products. Centralization, review of work processes and automation are all underway towards productivity improvement and cost containment.”
Sandra Walgama
Deputy General Manager – Personal Banking
TREASURY
“At Treasury, we are focusing on increasing our contribution to the bottom-line of the Bank through strategic and prudent investments. To this end, we will place heavy focus on further streamlining our systems to facilitate better customer experiences and creating value additions that benefit our customers and their businesses. We will be actively working on introducing global treasury-related products to the Sri Lankan market based on actual requirements. We believe the strong relationships maintained with customers will help us glean information about their most prominent requirements, for which we can create solutions.”
Prins Perera
Deputy General Manager – Treasury
CORPORATE BANKING
“Our focus is on growing our Trade Finance business to maintain the Bank’s superiority, and become the best partner for trade financing in Sri Lanka. We also intend to become an aggressive player in green financing, with special emphasis on renewable energy, energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste management and emission reduction. We aim to be the leader in green financing in Sri Lanka. At Corporate Banking, we want to be a genuine partner in taking our corporate customers to a higher status, by supporting them throughout their journey.”
Naveen Sooriyarachchi
Deputy General Manager Corporate Banking