Sri Lanka Insurance awarded ‘Best in Sri Lanka’ title at World Finance Insurance Awards 2012

Sri Lanka Insurance once again shone at the recently-held World Finance Insurance Awards, when the company bagged the most prestigious coveted award as the best insurance company competing with the best in the insurance industry in Sri Lanka.

SLIC Managing Director Mohan de Alwis receives the award whilst Executive Director Piyadasa Kudabalage is also present

The World Finance Awards is organised by World Finance Magazine, a leading financial magazine, published by World News Media operating from its Headquarters in London, which reports on capital markets, risk management, trading, technology, corporate governance issues and regional markets including Asia, Latin America and EMEA.

The World Finance Awards identify industry leaders, individuals, teams and organizations that benchmarks achievement and best practices in the financial and business world.

The World Finance awards panel scrutinises the nominees under a stringent criterion which also includes among many others, a company’s constant skill for innovation, originality and quality of product, as well as proof of market development and excellence in client representation.

Receiving the award, Managing Director of Sri Lanka Insurance Mohan de Alwis said: “It is a privilege and an honour to have been chosen as the best insurance company in Sri Lanka for the year 2012. It is a real tribute to our company and all its stake holders, more importantly for our staff and customers. It’s significant that we have received this award of excellence as we celebrate our 50th anniversary.”

De Alwis further stressed while quantitative performance denotes the stability and strength of an organisation, the fundamentals of openness, honesty, transparency, integrity and accountability must be within the culture.

“We make our financial performance available for public scrutiny and are cognisant that the ethos of a strong and reliable insurance provider must be backed by products and services that are true to the delivery promise. This means that we have to constantly improve our service levels, because being a very competitive industry, in order to gain market share, we must make service excellence our competitive edge.”

Sri Lanka Insurance claims the position of the largest and strongest composite insurance provider in Sri Lanka. The financial strength and the stability of Sri Lanka Insurance stands at Rs. 107 billion assets under management, over Rs. 6 billion in capital and over 1.8 million policies in force and an average claims settlement of Rs. 31 million a day. The company’s Life fund now stands at approximately Rs. 56 billion.

SLIC is able to exercise considerable freedom to drive new product strategies in the market and through a segmented portfolio strategy ensures continued service to all strata of society as a truly Sri Lankan company. SLIC is backed with very strong re-insurance arrangements, a highly experienced technical knowledge base and the wide network across the country.

Speaking on the company’s diversification of the investment portfolio in to other sectors, SLI Executive Director Piyadasa Kudabalage stated that the company has leveraged on strong brand equity and high liquidity base to embark on strategic diversification over the last few years.

Kudabalage said: “Since 2008, SLI has diversified its portfolio into investments into healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, construction and trading. In 2010, the company made inroads to Sri Lanka’s consumer market through the 100 per cent acquisition of Litro Gas Terminal Lanka, formerly known as Shell Terminal Lanka. As part of the diversification process, a five-star hotel Hyatt Regency Colombo is in the process of being constructed and the management of the hotel is outsourced to the world renowned hotel management chain Hyatt Regencies Worldwide.”

SLI continues to etch its values and principles even further by pushing unprecedented boundaries to gain rankings, ratings and standards that are firsts for the insurance industry. It is the first insurance company in Sri Lanka to gain an AAA rating from RAM Ratings (Lanka) and the first to attain a highest global rating of BB- and domestic rating AA(lka) from the global rating agency Fitch Ratings. Encouraging the permeation of best practices and international standards, SLI is also the first insurer to gain ISO 9001:2008 certifications.

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