Commercial Bank’s Deputy General Manager Marketing Hasrath Munasinghe presents a cash prize to Master Kavishka Wanigasekara of Maakura Primary School in Malmaduwa 


Academic achievements have won three young students the approbation of Sri Lanka’s largest private bank, which presented them with Rs 375,000 in cash prizes recently.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon presented the three top achievers at the 2015 Year 5 scholarship examination with these rewards under the aegis of ‘Arunalu’ – the Bank’s signature Savings Account for Children – which is designed to motivate and support student aspirations.

Two of the three students received Rs 100,000 each in recognition of their feat, while the third received Rs 175,000 by virtue of being an Arunalu account holder and qualifying for a higher prize under the Bank’s eligibility criteria.

The Bank said all other eligible Arunalu prize winners will be presented with their prizes at branch level in due course.   

Launched in 1991, Arunalu is Commercial Bank’s key savings account for children of the school going age. The cash prize scheme introduced in 1998 is now the largest year 5 Scholarship cash prize scheme in the country, with an educational support scholarship scheme for children who are placed 1st, 2ndand 3rd island-wide each year.

In 2013, Commercial Bank’s Arunalu Children’s Savings Account paid Rs 4 million in cash rewards to 575 students placed first, second and third in their respective schools at the Year 5 scholarship examination. This was in addition to nine students who were placed first, second and third in the island at that examination. In 2014, 563 students received Rs 5.3 million from the Bank under the scheme.

Offering an interest rate of 6.5 percent per annum, ‘Arunalu’ is considered the best Children’s Savings Account in Sri Lanka. Besides rewarding students who shine at the national level, the Arunalu Children’s Savings Account presents attractive cash prizes annually to account holders who are the top scorers at the Year 5 scholarship examination in every school, while District winners holding ‘Arunalu’ accounts are given a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each.

‘Arunalu’ accounts can be opened for children below 18 years of age at any of Commercial Bank’s branches island-wide.