HNB awarded ‘The Best Retail Bank’ for 8th time by Asian Banker

HNB Deputy General Manager – Retail and SME Banking Thimal Perera (center) with the Award while also seen (from left): Saman Perera (HNB), Kanchana  Karunagama (HNB), Advisory Council members of the Asian Banker Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme Wilson Chia, Philippe Paillart, Gai McGrath, Foo Boon Ping, Varun Sabhlok, Chinthaka  Kulathunga (HNB), Shiral Perera (HNB) and Damian Ranjit (HNB) 

HNB was once again recognised as ‘The Best Retail Bank’, in Sri Lanka at the Asian Banker International Excellence in Retail Financial Services 2016 Awards ceremony held in Hong Kong recently. This is the eighth time that HNB has been bestowed with the Best Retail Bank Award by the Asian Banker.

The Asian Banker is one of the most respected organisations in the worldwide financial community. The award for the Best Retail Bank was contested by more than 250 banks from 42 countries and is one of the most exclusive and sought after awards for any top ranking bank to win as it recognises outstanding institutions in retail banking for their strong vision, profitable performance and market leading propositions.

Asian Banker in a press release cited the following as the key factors which enabled HNB to secure its position: 

nsignificant corporate strategies and initiatives to provide unparalleled customer service 

nsubstantial investments in information technology to advance its retail services 

noutstanding growth in its retail business through its vigorous sales efforts and refined approach to sales 

DGM – SME and Retail Banking Thimal Perera who accepted the award on behalf of HNB stated, “Our financial performance despite the challenging macroeconomic environment within which we operate, our customer centric approach in everything we do, our accessibility through our very strong brick and mortar footprint and our concurrent leadership in state of the art digital channels and provision of banking solutions to varied socio economic segments have all been factors in our victory.”

He further added that the “Asian Banker goes through one of the most rigorous processes in their evaluation and selection of winners, hence the receiving of this award is an independent validation of our strategies and initiatives while allowing us to be benchmarked against financial institutions not just in Sri Lanka but the biggest and the best across Asia pacific and the Middle East”. 

HNB MD/CEO Jonathan Alles stated, “Recognising HNB as ‘The Best Retail Bank’ by the prestigious ‘Asian Banker’ magazine is ample testimony to the immense capability and dedication of the HATNA family to deliver unparalleled customer service and experience while constantly pushing the bar of innovation.” He added that “Winning the award for the eighth time is a validation of HNB’s ability to transcend simple transactional banking into developing richer and deeper bonds with customers, thereby enabling the bank to influence the economic and social progress of each and every Sri Lankan while being a partner in the development and progress of the nation.”

Hatton National Bank is a premier private sector commercial bank with one of the largest branch networks among private sector commercial banks, spread across the length and breadth of Sri Lanka and caters to all segments of the market through its diverse product and service offering. The bank is also involved in insurance and capital market operations in the country through its Group companies. As at end of 2015, the Group assets surpassed Rs. 750 billion, while the Group recorded a post-tax profit of over Rs. 11 billion for the year.

In 2012 HNB became the first Sri Lankan bank to obtain an international credit rating and was assigned a foreign currency issuer rating of B1 on par with the sovereign rating by Moody’s Investors Service, while it has a national long term rating of AA- (lka) by Fitch Ratings (Lanka) Ltd.