Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

Combank named Most Innovative...

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The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been adjudged the ‘Most Innovative Commercial Bank in Sri Lanka’ in 2019 by a leading business magazine in London, acknowledg­ing the bank’s focus on meaningful innovation in processes and service delivery.

By conferring this award on Commercial Bank at the Business Tabloid Banking Awards, Business Tabloid magazine recognised the bank as a player at internatio­nal level, purely on the merits and expertise it has demonstrat­ed in the industry.

“With technology revolution­ising the way products and services are accessed and used, innovation is no longer an option, but something that the new generation customer expects,” Commercial Bank Chief Operating Officer Sanath Manatunge said. “Banks in particular have to make innovation a part of their corporate culture,

and awards of this nature recognise how successful Commercial Bank is in providing innovative solutions to the needs of its customers.”

Commercial Bank’s track record of introducin­g innovation­s that make banking more convenient and accessible to its customers can be attributed to its selection for this honour. The bank’s cutting edge products and services include online banking and mobile banking, SMS banking, mobile phone cash top-up, overseas SWIFT money remittance services, innovative automated banking centres, selfservic­e touch-screens in branches, automated instant cash and cheque deposit machines along with ATMS which offer extensive utility bill payment facilities in addition to cash withdrawal­s.

Among the innovative feats of the bank, specific to the concluded financial year were the introducti­on of ‘Flash,’ Sri Lanka’s first fully-fledged digital bank account; the launch of Unionpay cards in Sri Lanka; acceptance of ‘Wechatpay’ in the country and joining ‘Alipay’ to facilitate QR code based payments, especially beneficial to Chinese tourists; the launch of Tokenised Mastercard Payment Gateway Services to Sri Lanka; facilitati­ng a mobile remittance channel between South Korea and Sri Lanka; enabling credit card settlement­s via an internet payment gateway; joining Ripplenet, a global payments network that leverages blockchain technology to enable both inward and regulator-enabled outward blockchain technology-powered remittance­s; and becoming the first bank in Sri Lanka to have its point-of-sale network accept Lankapay-jcb (Japan Credit Bureau) co-branded cards.

Other banks that won awards at the ‘Business Tabloid Banking Awards 2019’ included Coutts and Co., United Kingdom; Diamond Trust Bank, Tanzania; UBS, Switzerlan­d; Open Bank, Spain; Deutsche Bank, Philippine­s; Citigroup Inc., New Zealand; Fimbank, Malta; ICICI Group, India; Maybank, Brunei; Ghazanfar Bank, Afghanista­n; and Bank Aljazira, Saudi Arabia.

The Business Tabloid Awards are open to companies of all sizes across the globe regardless of location, size, and ownership. Nomination­s for the awards are evaluated based on various criteria such as innovation­s, accomplish­ments, and contributi­ons of an organisati­on.

Business Tabloid is a print and online news magazine built for the current fastpaced generation looking for encapsulat­ed, accurate and informativ­e content. It provides comprehens­ive coverage and analysis of an array of industries, internatio­nal business, and global economy.

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