LB Finance’s innovation-driven digital transformation recognised at FITIS Digital Excellence awards

LB Finance team at the inaugural FITIS Digital Excellence Awards 2021

DGM – IT Chethana Kahandugoda

DGM – Strategy and Digital Finance Bimal Perera

LB Finance (LBF), the country’s leading Non-Banking Financial Institution, was recently honoured for its pioneering work around business model innovation at the FITIS Digital Excellence Awards 2021. 

FITIS (Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka) the country’s apex body of the ICT industry, organised the inaugural awards ceremony to recognise the achievements of organisations that successfully planned and executed digital transformation through migrating enterprises from Industry 3.0 to 4.0. 

LB CIM powered Automated Loan Recovery (CALR) was recognised as the best Business Model Innovations by the eminent panel of judges comprising local and international domain experts. The award category focussed on evaluating innovative business models for their ability to reconfigure existing business models thus enabling business transformation. This recognition is an endorsement for CALR’s design, execution and potential to transform a traditionally a human driven core business operation in to a scalable and robust digital automation. Automated Loan Recovery function allows LB CIM App users to automate repayment of loans. The uniqueness is the ability to link many funding sources thus ensuring robust loan recovery.

LB CIM (Cash-In-Mobile) is a smartphone based mobile wallet solution from LBF with the aim of democratising the digital financial services in Sri Lanka. CIM is a secure, CBSL licensed mobile app, with ultra-simple UI/UX, 100% trilingual experience bringing financial inclusivity to all Sri Lankans. CIM is uniquely positioned as a complete digital financial solution enabling its users to make QR based payments, utility payments, save and earn interest, transfer funds, apply and service loans, all-in-one.

CIM is the main customer facing digital asset of LBF leading the company’s digital transformation whilst empowering its diverse clientele. It has a very tight integration with LBF core banking system enabling customers to enjoy unhindered access to their portfolio of lease, loans and deposit accounts through one single digital platform. 

LBF DGM – IT Chethana Kahandugoda speaking on the progress LBF has made on the Information Technology front said, “By transforming our financial services business through digitising existing manual work flows and automation of certain recurring operations, our organisation has managed to re-deploy our resources more efficiently towards customer acquisition and business development activities. The company believes that simplification of existing processes adds equal or more value as introducing new processes. Therefore critical, painstaking processes are constantly reviewed for further simplification.”  

Commenting on this breakthrough innovation, LBF DGM – Strategy and Digital Finance Bimal Perera stated, “The company’s digital strategy is focused on prioritising new offering to meet the needs of its largest customer segments and processes that have the most significance to Company’s core business operation. “Through CALR, LBF stands to derive great value by optimising the cost and effort of loan recovery process through a secure, automated digital recovery model by leveraging the company’s popular digital assets and common payment infrastructure available to FIs,” he further explained.

Having identified the role of digitalisation in shaping the financial services landscape in the country, LBF made early investments in to technology infrastructure. The company has set up a dedicated Centre for Technology and Innovation (CTI), and a Digital Financial Services (DFS) Centre with the objective of introducing improvisations and innovations to enhance the breath of the customer segments for its existing core products and make them youth-friendly to attract the emerging new customers who represent predominantly the Gen Z.