BOC celebrates 79 years of yeomen service to nation
The No.1 Bank in the country, Bank of Ceylon (BOC) celebrates its 79th anniversary today, August 1, 2018, with its main ceremony at the bank’s head office premises with the participation of distinguished customers, well-wishers, Chairman and the board of directors, Ceo/general Manager together with the members of the corporate and executive management and staff.
Similarly, every BOC branch celebrated the day with their distinguished customers, wellwishers and staff. In line with the anniversary celebrations, the bank held a multireligious service and a blood donation campaign to mark the significance of the day.
It launched its upgraded ‘Smart Online Banking’ system that includes added features. As a reward to all newborn babies in the month of August 2018, BOC presented its free gift ‘Upathaka Mathakaya’, a baby record book to capture the precious moments of the baby till he/she grows up and a free Ran Kekulu account with the initial deposit of Rs.250.
Further to the ceremony on August 1, the bank’s Buddhist Association has organised a ‘Pirth’ ceremony on Friday, August 3, 2018 night and an alms giving on the following d a y morning to invoke the blessings of Triple Gems on the bank, its staff and all its customers. “As celebrations begin for the 79th anniversary, it necessarily calls us to look back at the bank’s journey as the No.1 Bank in the country. It has been a strenuous path to travel with many success stories to share but a wellpaid off journey. I must say the benefits of all these achievements have been uncompromisingly shared with all Sri Lankans. I would like to take this as an opportunity to thank all our distinguished customers, the Government of Sri Lanka, the staff of BOC and all our stakeholders for support and well wishes,” stated Chairman, President’s Counsel Ronald C. Perera. “Moving forward with the digital revolution, Bank of Ceylon has now reached its customers through the latest technology that empowers them throughout the day. This was done by confronting challenges that came from all directions by developing market leadership, confronting market volatility, tunnelling and aligning resources to ensure business growth and transforming the banking landscape digitally,” he further added.
The bank has made its services available to the customers through many unconventional modes such as social media and online modes. B-app, Smart Online Banking, Smart FD, Smart Passbooks, ‘Apply Online’ loan facility are some of the initiatives that assist customers to access the bank without having to visit a branch to get their banking needs fulfilled.
Then, the newly introduced facilities such as BOC Digi the state-of-the-art self-serving banking facility outlet in the Kandy City Centre, which will be expanding to 10 other strategic locations, ‘Branch on Wheels’ - mobile branch allocated to each province that goes to the customers’ doorstep to provide service, widespread ATM/CDM network consisting over 900 machines, over 190 Smartzones and 24-hour banking counter at the bank’s head office Personal branch, ensure the customers have access to seamless transactions throughout 24 hours a day.
“BOC believes that it has genuinely added value by these initiatives that empowered the customers to carry out their banking anytime, anywhere whenever they need to. Whilst the retail banking unit offers smart banking products for individuals from any walk of life, micro, SME and corporate banking offers the best-in-class facilities for entrepreneurs in the country to live their vision.
Working hand-in-hand with the government’s vision to develop the entrepreneurship in the country through financial inclusion, BOC is at the forefront to reach the grass-root level young Sri Lankan entrepreneurs through programmes such as ‘Thurunu Diriya’ and ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’, stated Ceo/general Manager Senarath Bandara.
The bank promotes several micro and SME industry entrepreneurship development schemes in support of the government’s mission to accelerate the country’s economic development through enhancing contribution coming from these segments. The recently launched enterprise Sri Lanka programme is one of the most prominent in this regard whereas the entrepreneurs in every industry is covered by formulating different types of loan schemes where the bank can cater to a variety of entrepreneurs whose requirements and fields of competencies are unique and needs to be addressed in a tailor made way.
BOC has so far disbursed over Rs.13 billion among the deserving micro and SME entrepreneurs and have taken all measures to extend these facilities to many through its branch network.
“Blending with the Sri Lankan community to bring out the best in their lives, Bank of Ceylon is one of the key financers behind the country’s economic drive and has become a profound house-hold brand for banking services as – BOC,” Bandara added.