Sri Lanka’s premier retail sector bank, HNB PLC recorded another landmark victory with its recognition as ‘Bank of the Year 2017’ in Sri Lanka by the highly acclaimed UK-based financial sector magazine, ‘The Banker’, during a ceremony attended by eminent bankers and financial institutions from across the globe recently, at The Hilton London Bankside.

HNB’s award was presented based on an analysis of its outstanding financial performance, operational efficiency, NPA management while providing leadership to the digitalisation efforts of the banking industry.

Accepting the prestigious Bracken Award on behalf of the bank HNB Managing Director/CEO Jonathan Alles expressed heartfelt gratitude to Hatna family, his team of 4300 fellow employees for their unwavering support and commitment in driving forward HNB’s ambitious strategy.

He added, “We, at HNB, are honoured to receive such a prestigious award and we are greatly encouraged by this resounding endorsement of our bank’s unprecedented efforts to establish a new standard of banking excellence in Sri Lanka; one that is centred on innovation and breakthrough technologies combined with an unprecedented emphasis on superior customer service.” 

During the nine months ended September 2017, HNB recorded a group profit before tax of Rs.16.8 billion, while the group assets crossed Rs.1,000 billion and the shareholders’ funds surpassed Rs.100 billion supported by the funds raised through the largest ever rights issue by a bank in Sri Lanka. 

This superior financial performance was paralleled by landmark developments in the group’s operational framework, which in turn enabled strong improvements in efficiency as reflected by the significant improvement in the cost to income ratio. 

‘The Banker’ is a trusted source of global financial intelligence since 1926 owned by The Financial Times Ltd. The Bracken award is named after Brandon Bracken the founding editor of ‘The Banker’ in 1926 and the Chairman of Financial Times from 1943-1958. Winning the Bracken award is the ultimate accolade for the top-performing financial institutions globally.

HNB is also ranked amongst the Top 1000 banks in the World by ‘The Banker’ and recently became the highest ranked bank in Sri Lanka by ‘LMD’ as well as ‘Business Today’.