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Friday, 2 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Having just been accorded the triple accolades of ‘Bank of the Year 2014’ at The European – Global Banking and Finance Awards 2014 and ‘Best Banking Group Sri Lanka’ and ‘Most Sustainable Bank Sri Lanka’ at the World Finance Banking Awards 2014, the bank has continued to break boundaries and look beyond horizons to take the nation into an era of becoming a strong economic hub in the Asian region, while retaining the pulse of the people.
People’s Bank strongly believes that its role in developing the nation and her people is crucial, and takes it seriously. As a fully-owned State bank, it has an immense responsibility to ensure that the trust and confidence the bank’s stakeholders have in the bank continues strong and vibrant.
This means striving to be the bank of the aspiring people of Sri Lanka, empowering people to become value creating, competitive and self-reliant, as the vision of People’s Bank states. Notching Rs. 1 trillion in the balance sheet for 2014 was truly remarkable for People’s Bank, as was the bank gaining an AA+ rating from Fitch Rating. This achievement is due to a series of pragmatic initiatives that People’s Bank strongly infused into the way it does business.
People’s Bank holds the strength of an extensive island-wide branch network of over 739 branches, which is the largest in the country and access to an ATM network of 2,500.The bank values its professional competent team of over 11,000 as being the core formula for success.
People’s Bank is accessible and approachable anywhere and this means even overseas, through its correspondent banking network spanning 110 countries. This is the dynamic that has enabled the bank to collate one of the largest savings deposit bases in the country, exceeding Rs. 300 b, another record-breaking achievement. It is pertinent to note that the bank’s overseas presence serving over one million Sri Lankan expatriates saw its foreign remittances exceed the $ 1 b milestone in 2014.
For People’s Bank it is vital that the bank’s ethos goes beyond simply numbers and into truly knowing the pulse of the people. The bank’s visionary products and services portfolio has always been a strength in formulating the blueprint for its success and it remains acutely cognisant of changing paradigms in stakeholder aspirations and its responsibility in meeting those aspirations.
With a portfolio of products and services that are extensive, expansive and billed to touch a person from cradle to twilight years, 2014 saw the bank unveiling another slew of products, adding impetus to meeting stakeholder aspirations.
‘People’s Relax’ conceptualised specifically to offer youth the perfect plan to make their golden days relaxing and memorable with a steady monthly income, ‘I Can Save’ under the popular Sisu Udana children’s savings account aimed at inculcating the savings habit among children, ‘People’s Nirogi’ with Lanka Hospitals which extends exclusive medical benefits through People’s Visa credit and debit cards, special loan facilities for specified festive seasons and augmenting its emphasis on technology, convenience, efficiency and speed, and a number of e-banking initiatives including payment of CEB electricity bills via mobile banking were some of the products launched during the year.
There were also some unique initiatives designed to foster better financial management and savings awareness among the various stakeholder genres including the promotion of the YES Season aimed at youth saving with their YES accounts, Avurudu Ganu Denu initiatives and using the empowering features of International Women’s Day to introduce an investment planner for Vanitha Vasana account holders, heralding an impressive achievement of both market growth volumes and value.
Judging the trends, the bank also re-launched some of its products with added benefits, including the People’s Wisdom education loan supporting youth knowledge development, People’s Professional Loan encouraging professionals to follow their dreams and People’s Auto Loan.
The bank has placed great intensity on sustainably uplifting the micro and SME sectors in Sri Lanka which are poised as the backbone of the economy and undoubtedly a vital conduit in taking the country towards achieving its Vision 2020. This has led the bank to launch 23 dedicated SME centres islandwide and extend micro finance facilities to entrepreneurs. These facilities include training and development through the unique People’s Bank Micro Finance Village Concept which builds and supports entrepreneurs across 239 micro finance villages island-wide.
Emphasis on governance, ethics, transparency and accountability has held the bank in good stead to found a strong and confident presence in myriad market segments. People’s Bank is the preferred choice to partner national development projects and have been aggressively pursuing national development goals.
Similarly, it firmly believes in economic and social inclusiveness, working with communities to ensure that national unity, equality and a common vision is shared by all. This led to People’s Bank funding the restoration of the Kodikamam Railway Station, a crucial link in the Yal Devi’s north to south railway journey and presenting e-learning educational software, Isuru Udana Padam Sellam to create a knowledge gaining culture among young students.
Having achieved its ambitious targets detailed in the last strategic plan, People’s Bank is now in the process of formulating and developing its Strategic Plan for the next five years. For People’s Bank, these next five years is crucial as it will be for the entire country. The bank has mapped out a journey and it is the responsibility of corporate leaders like People’s Bank to drive that journey.
The bank has set the foundation for that journey and the trusses are strong, vibrant, robust and sustainable. People’s Bank sees itself growing phenomenally and this growth will be linked to the country’s growth, which permeates to people’s growth and development. It foresees immense opportunities ahead of it and having now honed its strengths to exploit those opportunities, People’s Bank says it is set to ink more impressive chapters in the nation’s tome of becoming the ‘Wonder of Asia’.
