Nearly Rs.30 bn concessionary financing provided by ComBank in 2020

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon provided new concessionary lending of nearly Rs. 30 billion in 2020, its centenary year, to help Sri Lankans weather the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This high volume of concessionary loans was in addition to the relief the bank granted to customers in the form of debt, capital or interest moratoriums on a staggering 81,387 existing loans with a capital outstanding of Rs.443 billion as well as repayment of outstanding credit card balances, the bank said in a media release.

“We began the year on a celebratory note, with an ambitious portfolio of community initiatives to commemorate our 100- year history, but it soon became evident that we would have to play a far more urgent and vital role to underwrite the survival of people and businesses impacted by the effects of the pandemic,” ComBank Managing Director S. Renganathan said. “We are proud to end the year as the leading provider of COVID-19 linked concessionary loans among the private banks, and the process continues.”

The total of Rs. 29.6 billion in COVID- 19 support loans was disbursed by the bank as at December 30, 2020 under multiple relief schemes to provide working capital loans to pandemic affected businesses included loans provided under the Central Bank- mandated programme as well as the bank’s own support schemes.

Under the working capital loan scheme titled ‘Saubagya COVID-19 Renaissance facility’ launched by the Central Bank, ComBank registered 5,637 applications with a total value of Rs. 28 billion over the three phases of the programme and disbursed 5,387 loans with a value of Rs. 26.6 billion at the close of 2020. Notably, ComBank disbursed the highest loan value within a short period during the first wave of the pandemic, and disbursed Rs. 2.8 billion, Rs.17.7 billion and Rs. 6.1 billion respectively under Phases I, II and III of the programme. Moreover, the bank lent another Rs. 1.4 billion under the Liquidity Facility for contractors in the construction sector and other suppliers to the government, the release said.

ComBank also funded two other special loan schemes of its own, one for SMEs affected by COVID-19 and the other the ‘ Dirishakthi COVID- 19 Support Loan’ scheme to assist micro enterprises disrupted by the pandemic. The bank lent Rs. 1.4 billion via 102 loans to help small and medium businesses and Rs. 34 million via 313 loans to micro enterprises under these bank- funded loan schemes.

ComBank became the first private bank in Sri Lanka to surpass Rs. 1.5 trillion in assets, Rs. 1 trillion in deposits, and Rs. 900 billion in loans in 2020. The bank also introduced several innovative products and services such as the upgraded online banking platform ‘ComBank Digital’ with multiple new and enhanced features, a trilingual multi-channel Integrated Contact Centre, and QR- enabled payment option for Credit Cards for the first time in the country and also introduced WhatsApp banking for the first time in Sri Lanka.