World-renowned The Banker Magazine UK reaffirmed the Bank of Ceylon as being among the ‘Top 1000 Banks in the World’ with the country rank No. 1.
BOC can undoubtedly boast of the financial and operational strength that it has demonstrated throughout the past years as having accounted for this magnificent achievement. Reaching its 80th anniversary celebrations this year, the bank has come across several notable achievements recently to its credit.
For the past several years the bank has been the highest profit earning single business entity in the country and the only bank to own a balance sheet that boasts three components that are worth over Rs. 1 trillion.
Its 2018 financial indicators justifies the bank’s achievement in terms of Profit Before Tax of Rs. 31.9 billion – highest in the industry, operating profit of Rs. 41.5 billion, assets crossing Rs. 2 trillion mark with a 16% growth and growth in the loan book by 24% and which now stands at Rs. 1.5 trillion. This growth in the bank’s balance sheet has not come as a surprise as it has continued to indicate a strong performance over several years.
The Banker Magazine UK is one of the premier banking and finance magazines in the world and has been so since its inception in 1926. The benchmark top 1000 banks list has been compiled by The Banker since 1970. The Banker database holds comprehensive financial data, news feeds and executive contact data on the leading banks in every country and its ranking sets the industry standard for measuring bank performance and strength.
“Continuing our quest to strive for exceptional performance in all areas of banking, we keep continuing to reach special milestones in the journey, with a steadfast growth. The Bank has moved towards modern state-of-the-art banking, exhibiting exceptional financial performance. Keeping our momentum of growth in every possible way we have moved up the list and has yet again affirmed our strength as the country’s No. 1 within the ‘Top 1000 Banks’ ranking. Further I wish to thank our customers and all stakeholders for the trust they have kept on us throughout these years,” stated Bank of Ceylon Chairman President’s Counsel Ronald C. Perera.
With the pledge to commit itself as ‘Bankers to the Nation’ since its inception, the BOC brand has been evolving with the needs and lifestyle of the Sri Lankan community to provide the financial assistance they require. The strength of the bank has encouraged many Sri Lankans to reach their aspirations in life in many different ways.
BOC has understood that it has to go beyond mere multichannel strategies to approach today’s customer and to deliver the service they expect. Therefore it has developed more agile operating models that are customer-centric and provide profound solutions for all its customers who come from all walks of life with equal importance.
With reference to the reach of its services, today BOC’s local market reach consists of 638 branches, 15 SME centres and 772 ATMs, 186 CDMs and 164 CDMs which are spread throughout the country. To add more sophistication to personal banking, BOC has upgraded its digital features to; online banking with Smart Online, B-APP mobile application and social media tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube that allow the customer to be connected with the bank in the cyber space gathering information and making a calculated decisions.
It has integrated world-class technologies to provide the best in class banking service that is suited for the next generation customer. The bank has brought banking to the fingertips of the customer. The foreign network of the bank consists of over 800 foreign correspondent banks and exchange houses and further four of its own branches in Chennai, Male, Hulu Male, and Seychelles and a banking subsidiary in London.
“We have been always driven by the motive of bringing the best out through every task we carry out as the leading bank in the country. It is my duty to thank my committed staff for all their hard work that was put in to get achievements such as this,” stated CEO/General Manager Senarath Bandara.
The bank is the market leader in foreign remittances which owns over 40% of the remittance market share. It has built trust and confidence in foreign remittances, so that savings of professional expatriate and the hard earned income of middle-east worker are both remitted securely through Bank of Ceylon.
BOC has always been assisting Government initiatives such as financial inclusion, extending digital technologies related to banking across the country, developing entrepreneurship and encouraging ‘good governance; within the industry.
Being the bank for the future youth, the bank look forward to build more Sri Lankan entrepreneurs encouraging youth to actively contribute towards economic growth and become future business leaders whilst continuing to uplift the country’s economic and social stratum for the future generations to thrive.
(FT)