HSBC Sri Lanka wins two awards at Asian Banking and Finance Awards 2014

Monday, 4 August 2014 00:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

HSBC Sri Lanka was awarded Credit Card Initiative of the Year and Advertising Campaign of the Year at the Asian Banking and Finance Awards ceremony, held in Singapore. Winning banks all gathered at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore recently, and witnessed the World Cup of banking and finance as top executives went up on stage to reaffirm their position in the financial sector. HSBC was among over 200 banks from around 30 countries who participated at the prestigious awards ceremony that made history this year with a record number of nominations from banks located in Singapore to as far as Turkey.

Regionally, HSBC was also awarded International Retail Bank of the Year, HSBC Asia Pacific, Online Banking Initiative of the Year in Australia, Advertising Campaign of the Year in China, Advertising Campaign of the Year in Hong Kong and Credit Card Initiative of the Year, Advertising Campaign of the Year in India and Advertising Campaign of the Year in Indonesia. Winning the credit card initiative of the year for its e-statement campaign launched in August 2013, demonstrates the bank’s commitment to foster green banking initiatives as the market leader in the credit cards industry in Sri Lanka. HSBC’s e-statement campaign encouraged customers to pledge their support towards climate change by opting for e-statements and enhance the customer experience through a more secure, speedy and convenient service offered anytime, anywhere, on any device. “We are pleased to be the only bank in Sri Lanka to win the award for credit card initiative of the year, which is a remarkable win for us. Sri Lanka became the pilot country to launch the campaign and it was very well received by our customers with a take up rate of over 15% of our base. HSBC has continued to innovate and enhance the customer experience by offering products and services that fulfill the needs of customers. We will continue to look at new concepts and innovation to support the lifestyle of customers in future,” stated Nilantha Bastian, Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management. HSBC won the Advertising Campaign of the Year award for the second consecutive year, this time for its creative execution of the 2013 seasonal campaign ‘Offers so great, Santa takes a break’. The seasonal campaign featured Santa as the central element in all creative material, as a notable figure encapsulating an enjoyable season of festive fun and good cheer. This enabled the bank to conduct ground activations inside leading shopping malls, supermarkets and places most patronised by holiday shoppers, with Santa prompting cardholders to actively engage in leisure activities during rush hour holiday shopping. Customers, both young and old, were also invited to play mini golf with Santa during the promotional period.Tharanga Gunasekera, Head of Marketing and Communications, stated: “HSBC has always been a trend setter in the market with innovative and novel concepts that have been well received by our customers and merchants. We are happy to have received the award for advertising campaign of the year for the second consecutive year. A lot of effort and hard work go into conceptualising these campaigns and is a joint effort of our agency JWT and the staff of the Marketing team, so it is truly rewarding to be recognized for the hard work that is carried out.” The awards were chosen by an esteemed panel of judges Egidio Zarrela of KPMG; Mohit Mehrotra of Deloitte Consulting, Southeast Asia; Liew Nam Soon of Ernst and Young and Antony Eldridge of PwC.