NDB conquers Global Banking & Finance...
National Development Bank (NDB) was recently felicitated with five accolades by the Global Banking and Finance Magazine of UK 2021 for the bank’s exceptional performance in various categories, including empowering women in business, digital transformation and leadership.
Accordingly, NDB was felicitated with awards for Decade of Excellence Project and Infrastructure Financing Sri Lanka 2021 for the fourth consecutive year, Best Bank for Digital Transformation Sri Lanka 2021 for the third consecutive year, Best Financial Services Group Sri Lanka 2021 for the fourth consecutive year and Best Financial Institution for Empowering Women in Business Sri Lanka 2021.
NDB Bank Director/group CEO Dimantha Seneviratne was also awarded the Financial Services Group CEO of the Year Sri Lanka 2021 for his noteworthy and revolutionary leadership in the banking industry.
NDB Bank was the only Sri Lankan bank to win five awards at the Global Banking & Finance Review 2021 Awards felicitation.
Expressing his views, Seneviratne said, “Our vision is to continue our legacy of supporting the country to touching and uplifting the lives of the multitude through our SME and retail banking franchise and digital banking as an enabler. Digital is the future and hence, building a robust scalable digital platform is a key imperative. We will continue to be the change agent and lead in many areas, including renewable energy, digital solutions, improving operational efficiencies, empowering women and holistic banking solutions.”
Best Bank for Digital Transformation Sri Lanka 2021 award followed the bank being named as Best Digital Bank 2021, at the Asiamoney Best Bank Awards for Sri Lanka, emphasising the bold strides the bank has made in Sri Lanka’s fast evolving digital landscape. As part of its digital transformation roadmap, NDB’S NEOS is regularly updated to reflect customer demand for personalisation and ease of use.
The launch of NEOS was the forerunner, which enabled the bank to launch the NDB NEOS online banking platform in April 2020, during the peak of Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 crisis. The NDB NEOS online banking has garnered popularity nation-wide as a state-of-theart digital banking platform, with absolute connectivity to all of NDB’S banking services, especially during the lockdown period.
Meanwhile, during such a time where minimum contact with others is in the best interests of every individual, NDB introduced NEOS Pay, a QR payment method in which customers can make payments to merchants, pay bills and make a host of other transactions via the same platform. The NEOS Phygital branches, Cash Recycle Machines and Bank2u propositions together with the NEOS app and online banking make the totality of the NDB digital offering. The bank is also frequently at the forefront of technological changes and is involved in exploring, investing in and developing the digital banking arena, while on the fast track to becoming Sri Lanka’s best digital banking provider.
Further, NDB is the first company in Sri Lanka to obtain EDGE Gender certification joining more than 200 leading companies, in 50 countries and 23 industries.
The bank has a programme to provide technical support to small and medium businesses, especially those run by women in collaboration with development agencies and professionals in business, finance and others.
To promote women’s private sector labour force participation in Sri Lanka, which is a key national priority, NDB develops products and services that better meet women’s needs as customers while promoting women as employees and NDB’S own workplace gender equality. Thus, began Sri Lanka Vanithaabhimana, which includes a programme to uncover and reward successful women entrepreneurs from every corner of the country.
Additionally, the bank’s project financing possesses the competence to assist its corporate clients in complex transactions and propel them towards the next phase of development in their businesses. With over three decades of project financing experience and in-house engineering and legal expertise, NDB not only plays a role of financial partner in these projects but acts as a project partner where advice on project management and legal aspects are also made available to the promoters. The package of services offered by NDB not only ensures the successful implementation of the project but also ascertains satisfactory returns to both the promoters as well as the bank, thus creating a win-win solution for both parties.
These five awards, which signify the bank’s extraordinary feats in the local banking and financial industry, come in the light of NDB being named as Sri Lanka’s Best Bank 2021 by the prestigious Global Finance Magazine of USA, fresh on the heels of being recognised as The Bank of the Year Sri Lanka by The Banker Magazine UK.