Commercial Bank hosts felicitation in UAE

Thursday, 1 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Strong growth in transaction volumes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), particularly in remittances, was acknowledged by the Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently when it hosted a felicitation ceremony for its business partners, ex-staff and customers in the emirate.

The event at Le Meridien Hotel in Dubai was attended by over 150 guests who were entertained by traditional Sri Lankan dances performed by the Channa-Upuli Dance troupe. Commercial Bank’s Executive Director-Chief Operating Officer S. Renganathan was the chief guest at the gala event, at which a presentation was made on investment opportunities in Sri Lanka and Chief Manager e-Banking and Remittances Pradeep Banduwansa also addressed the gathering. United Arab Emirates is a key market for remittances to Sri Lanka. Commercial Bank has 21 agents and four business promotion officers in the UAE, covering four emirates: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman. The bank is one of the most active players in Sri Lanka in the field of remittances, offering customers a range of options including the bank’s own e-Exchange platform, a highly secure, low-cost money transfer facility which is available to remitters via a network of agents in over 50 countries. Remitters can send money even without having an account in the bank. Besides its own e-Exchange remittance platform, Commercial Bank offers customers around the world the facility of transferring funds via MoneyGram, Xpress Money and Ria Financial Services. One of the bank’s key strengths is its island-wide network of 239 branches, many of which remain open on public, bank and mercantile holidays, and its network of 605 ATMs, which is the largest automated cash dispensing system owned by a single bank in Sri Lanka. Recipients of remittances sent to the bank enjoy many benefits such as over 50 holiday banking centres and super market counters, a dedicated customer support call centre for remittances and an SMS alert facility once the remittance is received and is ready to be paid out.

Guests at the felicitation ceremony Adding to the versatility of its offering in remittances, the bank recently partnered with MoneyGram to facilitate an account deposit service through which Sri Lankans working overseas can transfer funds to over 98% of bank accounts in the country within an hour. The funds can be received in Sri Lankan rupees directly from 40 countries. Ranked Sri Lanka’s Bank of the Year by The Banker and Strongest Bank in Sri Lanka in 2014 by The Asian Banker magazines, Commercial Bank is the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for four consecutive years. The bank was also rated the most valuable private sector brand in the country in 2014. Commercial Bank has won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s best bank over several years, been adjudged one of the country’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in 2013 and 2014, and has been rated the Most Respected Bank in Sri Lanka by LMD for the past 10 years. It has also been the second Most Respected Corporate entity in the country overall for the past four years in the LMD rankings and has been rated No. 1 in Sri Lanka for Honesty in 2013 and 2014 by the magazine.