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Thursday, 7 January 2016 00:09 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
From left: HNB Chief Financial Officer Ashok Goonesekere, HNB Chief Manager – Planning and Investments Rajive Dissanayake, HNB DGM – Credit and Transaction Banking Ruvini Thenabadu, CSE CEO Rajeeva Bandaranaike, HNB Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Alles, CSE Chairman Vajira Kulatilaka, CSE Director Anton Godfrey, HNB DGM – Legal/Board Secretary Thushairi Ranaweera and HNB DGM – Corporate Banking Ruwan Manatunge
Hatton National Bank PLC (HNB) opened trading on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) on Tuesday. This event was yet another in a series of market opening ceremonies, featuring the companies from the S&P SL20 index.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Alles, DGM – Credit and Transaction Banking Ruvini Thenabadu, DGM – Legal/Board Secretary Thushairi Ranaweera, DGM – Corporate Banking Ruwan Manatunge, Chief Financial Officer Ashok Goonesekere and Chief Manager – Planning and Investments Rajive Dissanayake from Hatton National Bank PLC and Chairman Vajira Kulatilaka, Director Anton Godfrey, CEO Rajeeva Bandaranaike and the senior management from the CSE took part in the market opening ceremony.
Alles stated: “HNB’s experience with CSE is a very good one. HNB first listed in 1971 and since then has grown to be one of the dominant stocks in the CSE, within the top 10 in terms of the market cap and exceeding Rs. 10 b in turnover in 2015.”
He further stated: “In the HNB group, Lanka Ventures and HNB Assurance are listed and our recent acquisition, HNB Grameen, will be listed shortly. In addition its joint venture companies, Acuity Stockbrokers, Acuity Securities and the corporate advisory team are well positioned to take advantage of the interesting developments planned for CSE in 2016.”
CSE Chairman Vajira Kulatilaka stated: “Despite the challenges expected in 2016, we are very excited. The reason is that there are a lot of implementations that will happen and the banking sector should be very aware of it.”
He further stated: “We just got exchange control approval to start listing foreign companies here. Again opportunity to banks, because that gives you confidence to lend to foreign companies because that will be listed in Sri Lanka.”
Hatton National Bank (HNB) has announced that its island-wide Smart ATM network, which includes over 465 multi-functional ATMs, has dispensed in excess of Rs. 1 billion per day on two days during the festive period leading up to 31 December 2015.
This reaffirms the important role played by HNB Smart ATMs in the lives of Sri Lankans from all walks of life and their rapid adoption of the technological innovations introduced by the bank. It also demonstrates the public’s faith in the capacity, reliability and accessibility of the bank’s Smart ATM network, qualities which assume greater significance during peak shopping seasons such as Christmas and the New Year.
As a customer centric bank, HNB has consistently invested in technology and automation with a view to providing choice and the best value to its customers. The bank has redefined the concept of ATMs by providing customers the convenience of using Smart ATMs as mini bank branches with services traditionally offered by bank branches. This has succeeded in bringing HNB banking to the fingertips of people, making their lives easier and their financial transactions faster.
The services available on Smart ATMs include the payment of electricity bills of CEB and LECO, water bills of National Water Supply and Drainage Board, telephone bills of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Lanka Bell, and prepaid and postpaid bills of Dialog, Mobitel, Airtel and Etisalat, Dialog CDMA and Dialog TV.
Furthermore, HNB Smart ATMs can be utilised for mobile phone top ups, bulk cash acceptance, currency conversion, and online cheque acceptance and processing. The latest functionality addition to HNB Smart ATM network is real-time fund transfers to other banks in Sri Lanka. Customers of HNB can now use their Smart ATM network 24x7 to transfer funds on a real-time basis to other banks which previously took at least a day if not more.
HNB Smart ATMs require no prior registration for use and are equipped to process most payments in real time. This ATM network differs from other ATM networks as transactions of customers are captured and stored in order to assist them in carrying out future transactions expeditiously, providing a highly personalised service.
Commenting on this, Mangala Wickremasinghe, Head of Electronic Delivery Channels of HNB, stated: “Our prime focus is to provide choice and personalised service to each individual who trusts our digital channels to fulfill their banking needs. We request all Sri Lankans to use HNB Smart ATMs and experience the difference in product offerings and service quality.”
Currently HNB has a network of 465 ATMs strategically located to maximise customer accessibility out of which 123 ATMs are at convenient and prominent offsite locations in public places such as malls, shopping complexes and supermarkets.
