Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Friday, 26 July 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The National Development Bank PLC and its subsidiary company NDB Investment Bank Ltd. together clinched a record number of nine awards at the recently-concluded Asian Banking and Finance Awards 2019, organised by the Asian Banking and Finance Magazine of Singapore, a reputed regional publication in the sector.
The awards program was held under three categories, namely Retail Banking Awards (for the 14th year), Wholesale Banking Awards (for the eighth year) and Corporate and Investment Banking Awards (for the second year).
NDB Bank won four awards under the Retail Banking category, two of which are the pinnacle awards under this category, namely Best Domestic Retail Bank of the Year and the Best SME Bank of the Year, for an impressive seventh consecutive year.
Throughout the years NDB has furthered its support to SMEs, and strengthened its strategic blueprint for SMEs, to ensure focused and fruitful offerings to uplift the economy’s backbone to greater heights. The bank’s carefully structured financial inclusivity initiatives are the epitome of the unwavering commitment to have every individual participating in the nation’s development journey.
The bank also secured the titles Best Consumer Finance Product of the Year for its industry best personal loan product NDB Dream Maker Loans and the Best Digital Banking Initiative of the Year for its dynamic branchless banking solution Bank2U. Together, these awards affirm the very dynamic and dominant retail banking institution that NDB has transformed in to, in its relatively short tenure of 15 years in commercial banking operations.
Affirming its excellence in project financing and cash management, the bank also won the Best Domestic Project Finance Bank of the Year Sri Lanka for an impressive fifth consecutive year and the Best Domestic Cash Management Bank of the Year Sri Lanka for the third year under the Wholesale Banking category.
Furthering its winning streak, under the Corporate and Investment Banking Awards, the bank bagged the twin titles for the Best Corporate Client Initiative of the Year and Best Syndicated Loan of the Year for the second consecutive year, in recognition of the excellence delivered by the bank’s Project Financing Unit. Project finance has always been the bank’s forte since its inception forty years ago as a development bank. In addition to the bank’s various project financing endeavours, NDB is also strong in financing renewable energy generation projects in Sri Lanka as well as in overseas jurisdictions, while also being one of the first banks to fund wind power and waste-to-energy projects in Sri Lanka.
NDB Investment Bank Ltd. (NDBIB), the undisputed best in Sri Lanka’s investment banking sphere, secured the Best Corporate and Investment Bank of the Year award, bringing the total awards tally to nine, for the NDB Group. NDBIB is also the Best Investment Bank in Sri Lanka as adjudged by the EuroMoney Magazine in 2019 (for the eighth consecutive year) and provides a wide range of investment banking solutions such as equity and debt raising, mergers and acquisitions and corporate advisory.
The awards, which span a wide range of performance aspects of a banking institution is clear affirmation of how NDB is an all-round excellent banking institution in the country, committed to delivering consistently superior value to customers from all segments, whilst embracing new age digital technology.
Asian Banking and Finance Awards of Singapore is a program reputed for its rigour and high standards in evaluations which focus on aspects such as uniqueness, innovation, effectiveness, impact created, dynamism and achievements of competing institutions and their projects. The evaluations are carried out by an esteem panel of judges based on competitive submissions made by participating entities covering projects and performance during a specified period.
The 2019 edition of the awards were held on 18 July at the Shangri-La Singapore and was graced by over 270 senior banking executives from the region, where over 100 banking institutions representing over 30 countries were recognised for excellence in their performance.
Regional peers such as DBS Bank, Maybank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and international banks such as HSBC, Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank were among the winners for their excellent performance in respective countries.
With the vision to be “the driving force for a financially empowered Sri Lanka”, the bank is committed to create superior shareholder value and to ensure success of all the stakeholders that join the bank in its success journey. Thus, NDB’s many achievements come in the backdrop of phenomenal growth in its balance sheet and profitability and its strategic focus is growing in the commercial banking space.
