BOC rewards NRFC customers at awards ceremony

By Harsha Udayakantha Peiris

Bank of Ceylon (BOC) held its ‘Cash remits and remits vasi 2013’ awards ceremony held at the Rainbow Ballroom of the Grand Oriental  Hotel (GOH) in Colombo on 4 April, in the presence of a number of  distinguish banking personages and more than 50 award winners.

The final draw held on the 31 December last year for this grand award ceremony had also selected winners among BOC NRFC account holders for five rewards of Rs. 100,000 and five rewards of Rs. 50,000 each. The draw had also selected winners for five 32-inch LED TVs and five valuable home theatre systems. The cash remits draw held last year island-wide, awarded 200 cash prices of Rs. 10,000 at the all-island level and 50 cash prices of Rs. 10,000 at the provincial level. The draw had also rewarded valuable digital cameras to the winners.

Expressing his views at the ceremony, BOC Assistant General Manager (International Division) S.M.W.Samarakoon stated that the bank had held several rounds of annual award ceremonies even last year, that had presented awards worth more than Rs. 15 million to winners selected among  its NRFC customers from around the country.  “The bank is very pleased to have this awards ceremony at the dawn of the Sinhala and Tamil New year as a token of goodwill and unbounded relationship between the bank and its customers,” he said.

BOC General  Manager (International Treasury Division) P.A.Lionel, speaking at the occasion stated that the awards ceremony was the largest ever presentation expressed  by a public sector financial  institution in Sri Lanka, that offered awards and gifts worth millions of rupees  to its customers. “Whilst a number of global institutions in the banking sector were collapsing during the recent meltdown and other devastating situations caused by the financial crisis, BOC stood as the most reliable and sustainable financial strength to all its customers in and outside Sri Lanka. Today, they can be proud of being prospective partners of a forward march towards socio-economic prosperity,” he added.

BOC inaugurated in 1939, opened avenues for non-residential foreign currency (NRFC) accounts on 14 February 1977, becoming the first state bank to open NRFC accounts in Sri Lanka.

More than 200,000 Sri Lankans serving abroad including the Middle-East and Europe provide the impetus for more than 100,000 citizens in Sri Lanka to make a prosperous living at present. BOC being the pioneer financial institution to serve these invaluable Sri Lankan employees abroad has extended a number of facilitating programmes to encourage their dedicated contributions to upgrade the socio-economic standards of the masses in the country. These facilities include, easy access to loans before leaving for foreign employment, self employment loans, housing loans under convenient interest rates, urgent loans as well as an insurance coverage up to Rs. 10,0000 or until the age of 70 years.

The BOC ‘Cash remits and remits vasi 2013’awards ceremony was organised by the staff of the bank’s Trade Promotions Unit of the International Division with the initiative of its Senior Manager  W.G.Jayawickrama and Manager - A.D.K.Guruge.

Distinguish professionals of the BOC including DGM (Finance and Planning) Russel Fonseka, DGM (Channel Management) H.M.Mudiyanse, DGM (Corporate Branch) Dayani Fernando, DGM (Product and Development) Senarath Bandara, Chief Manager (International Division) Priyal Silva and a number of Executive Staff Members of BOC were also present at the ceremony.

 – Pix by  Aloka de Silva