NDB bags 3 wins at Asian Banker Sri Lanka Awards 2019

 NDB Director/Group CEO and SLBA Chairman Dimantha Seneviratne, Dillon Gage Asia CEO and Singapore Mercantile Exchange former CEO and Managing Director Thomas McMahon, The Asian Banker International Resource Director Richard Hartung, Senior NDB Personal Banking and Branch Network Management Vice President Sanjaya Perera, The Asian Banker Managing Editor Foo Boon Ping 

NDB Personal Financial Solutions and Card Center Assistant Vice President Zeyan Hameed receiving the award from Dillon Gage Asia CEO and Singapore Mercantile Exchange former CEO and Managing Director Thomas McMahon

NDB Digital Financial Services Assistant Vice President Damitha Silva receiving the award from Dillon Gage Asia CEO and Singapore Mercantile Exchange former CEO and Managing Director Thomas McMahon

NDB was recently felicitated with three coveted awards at the inaugural Sri Lanka Awards program by the Asian Banker which recognised accomplishments that is specific to banks and financial institutions in Sri Lanka. 

The key product awards for Consumer Credit Product of the Year – Dream Maker Loans, Credit Card Product of the Year – Good Life Credit Card and the Best Branch Digitisation Initiative, Application or Programme for NEOS was obtained by the National Development Bank (NDB).

The awards ceremony was preceded by the Finance Sri Lanka forum themed ‘Creating a stable bank amidst a challenging operating environment’ in which NDB Director/Group CEO Dimantha Seneviratne in his capacity as the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Banks' Association gave the inaugural speech, followed by Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy’s opening keynote address. 

The forum discussed a number of topics such as Rethinking Customer Experience in the Digital Economy, The Digitisation of Payments and Steps Towards Financial Inclusion, Dealing with the Vulnerabilities and How to Keep Business Safe, etc. 

In the keynote address, Dimantha Seneviratne said: “In this digital era, all CEOs and business leaders must have a certain level of tolerance to create the ‘Digi Mindset’ in their workplace. This would of course require the support of the Board members and shareholders, where ups and downs of innovations are well embraced. This will enable acceptance of a ‘fail fast, fail cheap’ culture whilst taking bold steps in innovation.”

NDB’s Digital Banking has increased in the recent past, with the opening of the first Phygital Branch NDB NEOS as well as the various number of CRM machines that were unveiled. The bank has embraced digitalisation with over 70% of all transactions taking place through a digital platform. 

The Asian Banker runs several international awards programs that have emerged within the banking and financial services community as undisputed benchmarks against which to measure the performance of the best banks and financial institutions. The awards cover primarily retail financial services, transaction finance, risk management and financial technology. The awards are viewed by executives as the most prestigious, rigorous and transparent recognition program of its kind, anywhere in the world today.

The Award programme is run on an independent and transparent basis over a period of three to four months involving a team of researchers assessing institutions within Sri Lanka. Winners were selected based on the impact created by them/their products and excellence demonstrated across several criteria such as digitisation, cost, sales, innovation, technology, operations and customer focus.