Commercial Bank’s  Managing Director Sanath Manatunge (centre)  receiving the award

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been crowned Sri Lanka’s ‘Bank of the Year’ by the ‘The Banker’ magazine of the UK, the Oscar equivalent of the banking fraternity. 

This is the 12th occasion that Commercial Bank has won this coveted award which is presented in recognition of the bank’s ability to deliver returns, gain strategic advantage and serve the market while being regarded as the industry standard for banking excellence. 

‘The Bank of the Year’ title is conferred upon financial institutions excelling in growth and performance, strategic initiatives, innovation in technology, new or upgraded products and services, and other noteworthy achievements in the field.

“Being named Bank of the Year 12 times is a remarkable achievement by any standards,” Commercial Bank Managing Director/CEO Sanath Manatunge said, “Winning this title in respect of 2022 is particularly noteworthy in the context of the conditions that prevailed. Our performance under intense pressure is a tribute to the entire Commercial Bank team, which has delivered consistently, leading to the numerous accolades won this year.”

A banking sector benchmark and the largest private sector bank in Sri Lanka, Commercial Bank’s assets grew 20.51 percent to Rs 2.390 trillion in the first nine months of 2022, reaffirming its position as one of the strongest banks in the country. 

The bank also achieved a gross income of Rs. 195.573 billion for the first nine months and Rs 76.056 billion for the third quarter of 2022, reflecting robust growth rates of 62.91 percent and 89.58 percent respectively and reported a net profit of Rs 6.283 billion for the period.

Other factors considered for The Banker’s ‘Bank of the Year’ award encompassed Commercial Bank’s strategic initiatives such as enhancing its online banking platform ComBank Digital to better cater to its business user segment, launching social media-based banking with trilingual access, and implementing a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, among others.

With these initiatives, the bank became the largest user of CEFT Transactions in Sri Lanka with over 4.5 million transactions from 1stJanuary to 31st May 2022, while its digital banking retail customer base grew by 89 percent over 2021, and its digital banking business customer base grew to over 31,500 users within a year of introduction.