Bank of Ceylon wins Gold Award in State Bank Category at CA Sri Lanka Annual Report Award again

Bank of Ceylon General Manager/CEO Senarath Bandara receiving the award (middle), while BOC Chief Financial Officer W.P. Russel Fonseka, Assistant General Manager Budget, Strategic Planning and MIS MP Ruwan Kumara also seen

The 54th Annual Report Awards Ceremony organised by Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka once again recognised Bank of Ceylon as the Gold Award winner in the State Bank Category for its 2017 Annual Report ‘ABC of BOC’. Moreover, it is the second time for this year that the ‘2017 ABC of BOC’ Annual Report has been accorded recognition.

Initially in September this year, Mercomm Inc. USA too recognised it with three Gold Awards at its 32nd annual celebration of the World’s best annual reports – ‘International ARC Awards 2018’ held in Germany as the Mercomm Annual Reporting Competition.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) recognises organisations that have promoted transparency, accountability and social responsibility in financial reporting through this award ceremony. CA Sri Lanka has formulated this year’s theme as ‘Epitome of Brilliance’ to select the most cohesive, clear and customised annual reports that best reflects an entity operation whilst going beyond its statutory boundaries of reporting financial performance while promoting transparency, accountability and good governance. The prime objective was to encourage effective presentation of financial and non-financial information to stakeholders through fulfilment of compliance with legislative requirements and generally accepted accounting practices. 

“Being a responsible services-provider for its customers, whose integrity has been tested over a span of 79 years, the Bank has evolved to deliver a service which goes beyond mere banking to its community. Bank of Ceylon makes an effort to communicate its financial and non-financial information in a holistic manner to represent the true nature of the bank’s performance. With that BOC ensures that its annual report complies with the standards set by regulatory bodies and international reporting guidelines such as International Integrated Reporting (IIR) framework issued by the International Integrated Reporting Council and GRI standards guidelines issued by the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) for sustainability reporting,” stated the CEO/General Manager Senarath Bandara. Adherence to best financial disclosures as per Accounting standards and regulatory requirements, early adoption of GRI standards and integrating the report across all six capitals with maximum disclosures are the key characteristics of the Annual Report 2017.

Leading the Sri Lankan Banking industry with over 79 years’ experience, the Bank of Ceylon has become the most stable and the trusted bank in the country that serves Sri Lankans from all walks of life helping them to build their lives and making themselves financially stable whilst uplifting the country’s economy. The Bank earned global recognition as one of the top 1000 banks in the world, as listed by ‘The Banker Magazine’ (UK) and the ‘The Asian Banker’ magazine named the bank of Ceylon as the Strongest Bank in the country for the year 2018. 

‘BOC’ was awarded the ‘Peoples Service Brand of the Year’ at the SLIM – Nielsens Peoples Awards 2018, which reflects the brand strength among general public. The Bank claimed its award as the only Sri Lankan brand recognised as one of Asia’s Best Brands in 2013 by the Chief Marketing Officer’s Asia Council (CMO Asia Council) based in Mumbai, India. Brand Finance Lanka in partnership with Media Services (Pvt) Ltd has ranked Bank of Ceylon as the country’s No. 1 brand and No.1 Bank for the last ten consecutive years in their ‘Brand Annual’ publication and it was also conferred the Master Brand status for the year 2017-2018 by the CMO Council Asia. InterBrand too conferred ‘BOC’ the title as the No.1 Brand in the country at their very first convention held in Sri Lanka. The Bank has passed exceptional milestones in recent years such as becoming the first to gain Rs. 2 trillion assets, over Rs.One Trillion Deposits and over Rs. 1 trillion loans and advances that strengthens the Bank’s balance-sheet with a triplet of ‘Trillion’ components. Focusing on the Banks achievement, Fitch Rating Lanka ranked the Bank of Ceylon at AA+(lka) which is the highest rating awarded to a local commercial bank and ICRA (lk) awarded AAA (SL) rating which is the highest credit quality rating issued by ICRA Lanka. BOC won the merit award for the Annual Report 2015 under state owned enterprises category at the Excellence in Integrated Reporting Awards – 2016 conducted by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka. The Bank of Ceylon currently maintains a network of 629 local branches and an international branch network comprised of three overseas branches in Chennai, Male and Seychelles and a subsidiary in London.