Tuesday Nov 19, 2024
Tuesday Nov 19, 2024
Monday, 14 September 2020 00:46 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
From left: Alpen Capital Senior Director Dilip Samanthilaka, NDB Relationship Manager Thushani Hewavitharana, Chairman Fazley Azhar, NDB Vice President – SME, Middle Markets and Business Banking Indika Ranaweera, NDB Director/Group CEO Dimantha Seneviratne, iLoan Director Roshan Weerasinghe, ILoan COO Shamraz Shamsudeen, NDB AVP – Business Banking, SME, Micro Finance and Liabilities Indika Kudagamage, NDB AVP – Corporate Planning and Business
Intelligence Shanka Abeywardene, NDB Regional Manager – Colombo Region Sydney Downhall
DB recently joined hands with iLoan Lanka Ltd. in an effort to provide SMEs with better access to trade finance, by providing trade credit to the Underbanked and Unbanked Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (mSME) in their trade with the distributors of large manufacturers in Sri Lanka.
In an era where fintechs are more focused on disrupting the way banks operate, iLoan is a unique business to business fintech that focuses on disrupting the way lending happens by providing a verified and secured trade credit network for banks to channel their trade based credit offerings.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has identified the urgent need to find solutions to the increasingly widening trade credit gap which is in excess of $ 600 billion in Asia alone. With this tie up, NDB identified that iLoan’s fully automated trade credit network could be the answer to infuse credit downstream to a majority of the SMEs in Sri Lanka.
NDB introduced the ‘NDB Jayagamu Sri Lanka’ initiative in order to create a pathway for Sri Lanka’s exporters, innovators and entrepreneurs to tap into, so that they will have the necessary means to target the companies that are looking to diversify their supply chain, thus bringing in much needed revenue in to Sri Lanka.
The uniqueness of NDB Jayagamu Sri Lanka is that it is more than just a loan scheme with loan approval in seven working days to assist entrepreneurs, exporters and innovators of the country. It is also a platform in which they will receive a boost to kick start their businesses as well as a place in which they will receive the support and the means to create new innovative ways to sell their wares. NDB, along with nearly 10 non-financial service and solution partners, will assist SMEs, innovators and exporters with financial and non-financial support.
The bank, which is the fourth largest listed bank in Sri Lanka, is one of the fastest growing banks, having had a cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) in advances by 21% and in deposits by 25% in the last four years. The only financial service conglomerate in Sri Lanka, NDB Group is uniquely positioned towards assisting the growth and development of the Sri Lankan capital market provide its customers seamless access to the product and service offerings of all its group companies.
