COMBank makes history: only SL bank in Top 1000 World Banks for 10 successive years

 COMBank MD S. Renganathan

• First local bank to enter prestigious global list moves up 51 places in 2020

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has brought honour to the country’s banking industry by moving up 51 places on the World’s Top 1000 Banks ranking for 2020, and become the only Sri Lankan bank to be on this prestigious list for 10 years in a row.

In its milestone 50th ‘Top 1000 World Banks’ ranking, ‘The Banker’ magazine, published by the Financial Times of the UK, has ranked Commercial Bank at No 878, primarily on the basis of the Bank’s Tier I capital.

“Commercial Bank was the first Sri Lankan bank to enter the Top 1000 World Banks ranking, and to remain on this ranking for 10 consecutive years in the midst of local and global challenges is a strong testament to our strength and resilience,” the Bank’s Managing Director S. Renganathan said. 

“To be benchmarked against global giants and to move significantly up the ranking this year is no mean task, and is extremely encouraging to every member of the Commercial Bank team as we face the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Banker ranks banks from 1 to 1,000, primarily on tier-one capital, and regional breakdown is supported with editorial commentary, making the Top 1000 World Banks one of the most industry-recognised rankings available. 

This year’s ranking adds a new Best Performing Banks ranking using a newly developed model to compare leading G20 banks across eight key performance categories; highlighting the banks’ relative strengths and weaknesses going into the crisis and indicating which are likely to emerge in best shape. 

The model refers to 30 key ratios to score and rank banks, country by country, on their performance in eight categories: Growth, Operational efficiency, Return on risk, Soundness, Profitability, Asset quality, Liquidity and Leverage. Each bank’s performance across these categories is then used to generate an overall ‘best-performing bank’ score and ranking.

Ranked Sri Lanka’s Strongest Bank Brand in 2020 by Brand Finance, Commercial Bank of Ceylon ended 2019 with total assets of Rs. 1.4 trillion, gross income of Rs. 150 billion, net profit of Rs. 17.4 billion, a deposits base of Rs. 1.07 trillion and net loans and receivables of Rs. 930.7 billion. 

In terms of Capital Adequacy Ratios, the Bank’s Total Tier 1 capital ratio (with capital buffers) at 12.398% as at 31 December 2019 was comfortably above the minimum requirement of 10% which became effective from 1 January 2019 under Basel III, while its Total Capital Ratio of 16.146% was also above the Basel III minimum requirement of 14%.

Compiled from a database of over 5,000 of the world’s biggest banks and acknowledged by the global financial community as the definitive guide to bank rankings and analysis, The Top 1000 World Banks ranking was begun in 1970, and provides in-depth global banking data and analysis for banks, consultants, regulators, vendors, corporates and investors.

Sri Lanka’s benchmark private bank, Commercial Bank is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The bank enjoys the position of the Most Awarded Bank in Sri Lanka, having won more than 50 international and local awards in 2019, and operates a network of 268 branches and 865 ATMs in Sri Lanka.

Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon and a Microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; and the Maldives, where the bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake.