People’s Bank recognised at SAFA Awards for 2020 Annual Report

Friday, 18 February 2022 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

People’s Bank Annual Report 2020 was awarded the First Runner-up in the “Public Sector Banks” category at the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) Best Presented Annual Report Awards.

People’s Bank Annual Report 2020 is the sixth Integrated Annual Report of the bank and was designed and created under the theme of “Pride of the Nation”. The Annual Report, presented in two books, covers the operations of People’s Bank and its subsidiaries People’s Leasing & Finance PLC and People’s Travels Ltd. It provides a transparent assessment of the bank’s performance in line with its strategy, created value for the bank’s stakeholders, operating context, governance and operations of the bank during the 12-month period ending 31 December 2020. It addresses the six capitals defined the international reporting framework. These include Financial Capital, Manufactured Capital, Intellectual Capital, Human Capital, Social and Relationship Capital and Natural Capital.

Continuing the bank’s pursuit of excellence in corporate reporting, the Annual Report provides a balanced review of the bank’s performance, in a concise but comprehensive manner. The Report, which builds on the 2019 Annual Report, is consistent with the bank’s annual reporting cycle for both financial and sustainability reporting. It focuses on People’s Bank response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways in which the bank has adapted to new ways of working and details plans for its future.

People’s Bank Chairman Sujeewa Rajapakse expressed his contentment in how the bank has been recognised once again for its commitment towards excellent corporate reporting with this latest award win on the global stage despite the pandemic-induced challenges of the past two years.

Chief Executive Officer/General Manager Ranjith Kodituwakku stated, “The bank has been able to successfully produce award-winning Annual Reports over the last several years. Although the pandemic prolongs into yet another year, the bank can look ahead with optimism in terms of its ability to produce a world-class financial reporting document.”

Commenting on this latest achievement, Head of Finance Azzam Ahamat said that the accolade was testimony to the bank’s commitment to international standards in financial and sustainability reporting and its efforts to uphold the highest levels of transparency. In preparing its Reports, the bank draws on concepts, principles, and guidance from the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Framework, Consolidated Set of Global Reporting Initiatives and Guidelines, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

People’s Bank has been lauded on multiple occasions for adopting international standards in integrated reporting over the years. For the year 2019, the bank was awarded the prestigious “Best in Sri Lanka” award for its 2019 Annual Report titled “the Frontier” at the International ARC Awards in New York, USA, widely considered as the Academy Awards for annual reports by the financial community. In addition, the bank also won Gold for both the Non-Traditional Annual Report category and Chairman’s/President’s Letter which it also won for a second consecutive year for its 2020 Annual Report titled “Pride of the Nation”.