NSB Annual Report 2019 Awarded at the International ARC Awards 2020
National Savings Bank (NSB) has won many national and international accolades recently, reflecting the Bank’s commitment to all its stakeholders. Adding to the streak, the Bank bagged six coveted awards for its Integrated Annual Report 2019, themed “A Momentous journey to the future: Inspired by an unfolding digital era” at the 34th International ARC Awards Competition held under six categories. The categories are as follows.
Gold Award – Specialised AR/ Integrated AR & CSR
Gold Award - Written Text
Gold Award - Financial Data
Gold Award - Infographics: Banks Silver Award - Interior Design: Banks
Silver Award - Illustrations: Banks NSB’s annual reports have been recognised by the International ARC Awards for many years for the high quality of its reporting with this being the sixth year in a row that the Bank’s Annual Report has been recognised and awarded by the said body.
This competition is conducted by the US based MerComm, Inc. which incidentally is the world’s only independent Awards Organisation and the competition is open to Corporations, Small Scale Companies, Government Agencies, Nonprofit Organisations and Associations as well as Agencies and Individuals who produce annual reports from different sectors and industries. With just top 30 percent of all entries qualifying for an ARC award, the multi-level judging process is manned by 30 distinguished judges drawn from around the world.
ARC Awards is considered as ‘the academy awards for annual reports’ by the International Financial News World and is one of the largest Annual Report Awards Schemes in the world receiving over 1,690 entries from 29 plus countries across the globe. It is a great achievement
ARC Awards is considered as ‘the academy awards for annual reports’ by the International Financial News World and is one of the largest Annual Report Awards Schemes in the world receiving over 1,690 entries from 29 plus countries across the globe. for NSB to secure six awards for its Annual Report at this year’s competition. It is heartening to see our hard work recognised by an international body of this nature through such accolades.
NSB Annual Report has also been victorious at many other national and international level awards ceremonies including CA Sri Lanka Annual Reports Awards and South Asian Federation of Accountant (SAFA) BPA Report Awards.
Having established in 1972 through a Parliamentary Act that amalgamated four traditional savings organisations in the country into one establishment, NSB, at its inception, inherited a savings legacy of over a century from its predecessor, the Ceylon Savings Bank established in 1832. The Bank was granted the status of a Licensed Specialised Bank (LSB) under the Banking Act No.30 of 1988 to foster a savings culture in all Sri Lankans irrespective of class, race and gender.
Today the Bank has flourished to be one of the strongest and safest financial institutions in the country, firmly rooted in the soils and the hearts of the people of Sri Lanka. Being true to our mandate, we are committed to fostering a healthy, sustainable, and secure savings protocol for all people of the nation by inculcating the savings habit and providing retail as well as corporate loans. We serve the customers that belong to all segments of the Sri Lankan society and our products and services are aimed at catering to all banking needs of the different age groups from infants to elderly people of their choices.
The 21.1 million accounts as of June 2020 attest to our claim of being the Bank for all segments of our society. Our main business activities comprise retail banking, corporate banking, money remittances, foreign currency operations, treasury operations, etc.
The Bank has been empowering low-level income earners, especially nonfixed income earners and self-employees through the personal loans which is supporting rural sectors. Further, “NSB Diriya” is exclusively designed to render financial support to entrepreneurs and start-ups with flexible repayment plans at an attractive interest rate. Being a Licenced Specialised Bank, NSB is restricted by its statute to provide loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) as well as to microfinance sectors. However, Sri Lanka Savings Bank (Pvt) Ltd, 100% owned subsidiary of NSB, supports entrepreneurs by providing SME and microfinance loans which is not only enhancing their business operations and building a secure financial future for those who belong to the said sectors, but also contributing to the development of the nation.
In fact, the product portfolio of the Bank is diverse. Its customer base is solid. So is the Bank’s performance. Despite its specialized status, NSB stands tall among the financial giants in the Island with an asset base that has surpassed Rs. 1 Trillion recently and a deposit base of over Rs. 1 Trillion. In its journey towards a better performance and thriving future for the Bank, NSB continuously interact with its original mandate and the initial objective of its existence and ventures to welcome its customers with an efficient, disciplined and improved customer service that caters to their ever-changing expectations and needs.
Since launching the first Smart Zone in 2017, the Bank has been able to increase the number of Smart Zones, over the past two years, bringing the total to 39 as at the end 2019. To counterfeit fraud, the Bank converted around 450,000 existing cards to EMV chip- based cards up to 2019. Moreover, the Bank introduced the NFC (Near Field Communication) technology enabled Visa and Master Debit Cards, offering maximum protection against skimming and cloning of information. In our efforts to continuously improve security standards of the Bank and protect customers from card related frauds, we became the first Sri Lankan State Bank to
receive the coveted Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard PCI-DSS Certification; the cardholder data security standard accepted worldwide. We have gradually converted 3% of our exiting branches to use renewable energy by installing solar power systems as an alternative source of power. Accordingly, 13 solar panel installed branches were connected to net metering during the year, increasing the total to 26.
NSB is the only Sri Lankan bank with a 100% government guarantee for its depositors’ money and interest therein, thus being crowning as the safest place for savings of the people. By its statute, NSB invests minimum 60% of its deposits in guilt-edged Government securities and therefore, remains as the second largest Government Security holder in the country. Meanwhile, NSB holds a strong position as a bank, committed to carry out a business in a manner that positively builds the society at large by participating in nation building by funding long-term development projects, and socio- economic projects of the Government.
We serve every stratum of the society through our extensive network that covers every province and district in the country through our island wide network comprising 258 branches, 358 ATM/CRM
network, and 4063 post offices and sub post offices as of August 2020. The Bank has been awarded the 5th most valuable brand in Sri Lanka by the Brand Finance Lanka Ltd and Global Finance Magazine has affirmed NSB as the safest Bank in Sri Lanka for the fourth consecutive year in 2019. We were assigned [SL] AAA with stable outlook by ICRA Lanka Limited, a group company of Moody’s Investors Service for the second consecutive year in 2020. NSB is the first Sri Lankan bank to receive AAA rating and the only bank to retain the same rating for eighteen consecutive years.
The corporate website of the Bank, www.nsb.lk has been recognized as the Best Overall Website at the “Bestweb.lk Awards 2020”, the Sri Lanka’s premier awards ceremony in the digital arena, receiving two other awards, the Silver Award for the Best Tamil Website and the Gold Award for the Best Banking and Finance Website.
18 awards for annual reporting, 02 awards for the corporate website of the Bank, one award for the brand of the Bank and 17 awards including other awards during the year 2019/20 bear testimony for the financial excellence and reputational superiority achieved by the Bank over a history of nearly five decades.