HNB epitomizes essence of a sustainable business

Sustainability is at the very core of Hatton National Bank’s (HNB) corporate strategy, inspiring it to create both social and corporate value. The growth of HNB has included a strategy of supporting the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, enabling it to make a valuable contribution to the nation’s macroeconomic goals of reducing the geographical disparities in income distribution and achieving financial inclusion. 
HNB has cemented its credentials as the pioneer and an industry leader in providing financial inclusion through rural entrepreneurship creation by offering its 25-year-old premier product ‘Gami Pubuduwa’ and the acquisition of ‘HNB Grameen’ recently. Providing assistance to start micro industries, succeeding the micro entrepreneurs to the SME and corporate levels through financial support, offering guidance through workshops and widening their market opportunities have created many success stories. Its vast islandwide network of 252 branches has also helped in direct and indirect employment generation, making HNB an integral part of empowering and enriching many rural communities across the country. 
HNB Chief Human Resource Officer L. Chiranthi Cooray commented, “The bank and all our employees are emotionally invested in our commitment to serve the nation. We operate even in segments where we have small margins where we make a positive impact to uplift people from the grassroots and scale up. We are passionate about our environmental and social projects and make sure they have long-lasting value. That said we are also proactive in times of disasters, such as the recent flash floods in May and the floods across the borders of our country and in the Indian sub continent where we contribute generously. We have witnessed first-hand our sustainability projects touching many lives and this only serves to strengthen our commitment further.”
The bank practices product responsibility in a dedicated manner. Each new product is fully tested and evaluated for suitability and undergoes a rigorous assessment for compliance in addition to statutory compliance testing and validation to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The product development committee plays a key role in evaluating how well new products and services and value propositions are aligned with customer needs and the degree of compliance with regulatory requirements to ensure that customers are treated fairly and their rights are protected.
HNB has also pioneered an initiative to promote sustainable banking to the financial institutions in Sri Lanka and 18 Sri Lankan banks have accepted adherence to the sustainable banking principles developed for Sri Lanka. Further, many international banks operating in Sri Lanka have pledged their support in implementing these principles although they have restrictions in signing local documents. 
Phase II of this project would involve developing the policies and procedures in the line with principles agreed and training and awareness creation amongst the banks with the objective of moving towards uniform environmental and social management systems across the industry.
Extending its sustainability scope further, HNB is committed to granting loans to finance renewable energy projects, energy efficiency and clean technologies. It has become the second-largest lender to hydropower and is evaluating more opportunities in wind and solar power projects. The bank also supports energy-efficient construction and sustainable energy projects. Moreover, the bank provides advice to customers on how to improve their environmental sustainability in the areas of enhancing energy efficiency, usage of renewable energy, rainwater harvesting, establishment of green belts around their premises, removal of invasive species from the customers’ lands and so on.