Global Finance names Combank as ‘Best Bank in Sri Lanka’ for 18th time

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been named Sri Lanka’s Best Bank in 2017 by USA-based Global Finance, giving the Bank its third international accolade in as many months.
Just released by the authoritative and widely respected publication, the list of the 30 Best Banks in Asia Pacific has Commercial Bank in the company of the giants of the region, including Commonwealth Bank (Australia), ICBC (China), The Bank East Asia (Hong Kong), State Bank of India, Bank Rakyat (Indonesia), Mizuho (Japan), DBS (Singapore) and Shinhan Bank (South Korea).
This is the 18th year that Commercial Bank has won this prestigious award as Sri Lanka’s Best Bank, in the 24th edition of Global Finance’s Best Bank awards programme.
The awards factor both objective and subjective criteria, and selections were made by the editors of Global Finance after extensive consultations with corporate financial executives, bankers and banking consultants and analysts throughout the world. In addition, a poll of Global Finance’s corporate readership was conducted in order to increase the accuracy and reliability of the results.
Objective criteria considered included growth in assets, profitability, geographic reach, strategic relationships, new business development and innovation in products. Subjective criteria included the opinions of equity analysts, credit rating analysts, banking consultants and others involved in the industry.
“This is a great start to the year,” Commercial Bank’s Managing Director/CEO Jegan Durairatnam declared. “According to Global Finance, the winners of this year’s awards are those banks that attended carefully to their customers’ needs in difficult markets and accomplished better results while laying the foundations for future success. That is exactly what we have been focussed on.”
Global Finance Publisher and Editorial Director Joseph D. Giarraputo said: “Global Finance’s annual Best Bank Awards celebrate financial institutions that excel at delivering customers the services and products tailored to meet their unique needs. These banks may not be the biggest or oldest, but their energy and adaptability make them stand out in the field.”
A full report on the magazine’s selections for Best Bank will appear in the May issue of Global Finance, with winners chosen in more than 150 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, The Middle East, North America and Western Europe. The May report will also feature selections for the Best US Regional Banks and the World’s Best Banks By Region.
Winners are to be honoured at an awards ceremony to be held during the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC in October 2017 at the National Press Club.
The Commercial Bank has already won two international awards this year -- the award for ‘Developing Sustainable Strategies’at the Global Sustainability and CSR Excellence and Leadership Awards in Mumbai, India, and the award for Best Internet Bank in Sri Lanka presented by Global Banking & Finance Review of the UK.
Founded in 1987, Global Finance has a circulation of 50,000 and readers in 192 countries encompassing chairmen, presidents, CEOs, CFOs, treasurers and other senior financial officers responsible for making investment and strategic decisions at multinational companies and financial institutions. Global Finance also targets the 8,000 international portfolio investors responsible for more than 80% of all global assets under professional management.
The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for six years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 256 branches and 658 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank has won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s Best Bank, Best Trade Bank, Strongest Bank, Most Respected Bank from a number of local and international institutions and publications over several years and has also been adjudged one of Sri Lanka’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for several years.
Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets, Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon, the Maldives, where the Bank opened a fully-fledged Tier I Bank in September 2016 and Italy, where the Bank launched its own money transfer service in November 2016.