Euromoney awards HNB as best Trade Finance Bank in SL
„Secures awards for ‘Market Leader in Trade Finance’ and ‘Best Service in Trade Finance’ „First time that a local bank has won for Trade Finance at Euromoney Awards
HNB, Sri Lanka’s leading private sector bank, was recently awarded by the prestigious Euromoney magazine as the ‘Market Leader in Trade Finance’ and ‘Best Service in Trade Finance’ in Sri Lanka for the year 2019.
These are a testimony to HNB’S pioneering role as the preferred bank for trade services. HNB is also the recipient of the Euromoney magazine’s ‘Best Cash Management Bank’ in Sri Lanka for 2018.
The Euromoney magazine is recognised globally as the most influential financial magazine and a leading source of information on finance, banking, investment and treasury and is read and trusted by the world leading companies, bankers, brokers, investors, regulators and policymakers.
The Euromoney magazine ranks providers of trade finance services on a global, regional and country level based on an annual survey of over 25,000 corporate cash managers, treasurers and finance officers worldwide. The Trade Finance award is based on an independent survey whereby corporates are given the opportunity to rate the quality of the service provided by their local and multinational relationship banks across products and services.
HNB Assistant General Manager Trade and Financial Institutions Janath Ilangantileke said, “Winning these two prestigious awards from Euromoney is a proud moment for the bank. These awards from Euromoney are the results of the hard work put in by HNB’S trade finance and relationship management teams to provide its corporate and SME customers with solutions that create value that is world class.
“We believe in partnering with our customers to provide well-thought through trade financing solutions. We are proud of our trade finance business and will continue to innovate to keep abreast with the everchanging demands of the local and global financial markets to support our customers in the years ahead.”
HNB offers to its clients the full complement of trade finance services – ranging from the complete structuring of trade financing facilities, issuing of letters of credit, letters of credit confirmation and negotiation of export documents to issuing of shipping guarantees and the facilitation of entrepôt trade business – the bank also places an equal emphasis on advisory services, awareness building workshops and networking of clients locally and globally.
Reflecting on HNB’S strength and dominant influence in Sri Lanka’s financial landscape as the preferred corporate banking partner of choice, HNB Deputy General Manager Corporate Banking Ruwan Manatunga noted that the confidence placed by corporates in HNB further encourages and supports the bank to continue to invest in new technologies and teams.
He also stressed that the bank will continue to give leadership to the market and will further roll out world-class innovative and customized solutions to its corporate clients.
HNB has the largest number of technically qualified staff and Certified Documentary Credit Specialists in the industry and their wealth of knowledge is used to provide advisory services that go above and beyond the traditional realm of trade business.
In order to further reassure customers of the service standards, HNB trade service operations were the first to secure ISO Certification in the year 2004 and have since been upgraded to ISO 9001:2015 status, following stringent audits by M/s Bureau Veritas.
HNB is the first local bank to offer a webbased, fully integrated trade payments and cash management platform – HNB Online. The bank, leveraging on this state-of-the-art platform, along with a dedicated business team that is considered the best in the industry, has achieved significant success in securing a leadership position in trade finance, which was previously a dominant business of the multinational banks.
Corporates using HNB Online have real-time control over their day-to-day management of collections, payments and liquid investments whilst enterprise-level clients have the ability to integrate HNB Online directly with their accounts payables and accounts receivables of their Enterprise Resource Planning systems such as SAP and Oracle.
HNB’S electronic banking platform not only caters to payments and collection solutions but also offers a comprehensive online trade platform to support international trade finance business. HNB’S trade finance business offering covers corporates, ranging from multinationals, large local conglomerates, mid-market enterprises as well as small and medium sized enterprises.