Double honours for Commercial Bank at Asia’s Best CSR Practices Awards

Monday, 4 August 2014 00:24 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Recognised for conducting 275 CSR projects within three years

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has won double honours for its commitment to the community from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Asia Council, which has presented Sri Lanka’s largest private bank with two prestigious international awards. The bank received the award for ‘Support and Improvement in quality of Education’ and a Merit Certificate for ‘Concern for Health’ at the 4th Asia’s Best CSR Practices Awards at Pan Pacific, Singapore, on Friday, 1 August 2014, attended by a prestigious gathering of business leaders, Chief Marketing Officers and Human Resource professionals. Preceded by the World Brand Congress at the same location, the Best CSR Practices Awards are Asia’s highest recognition of corporate organisations that have a significant and positive impact on the lives of people around them.

The awards presented to Commercial Bank recognise the tangible impact the bank’s multifaceted community initiatives have had in the spheres of education and health in Sri Lanka. These include the Bank’s nationally-scaled program of donating computer laboratories to schools, a project to supplement English language classes in rural schools, the annual presentation of scholarships and laptops to undergraduates and the donation of medical equipment to hospitals around the country. The bank’s IT Education initiative is intended to enable younger generations and the country to face the future with confidence with world-class knowledge. This program shares synergy with the Bank’s enduring vision of being the most technologically-advanced, innovative and customer friendly financial services organisation in Sri Lanka. By the first half of 2014, the 140 IT Labs donated by the Bank had benefitted an estimated 140,000 children. All computer laboratories donated by Commercial Bank’s CSR Trust are equipped with brand new computers with licensed software. The schools are also provided accessories such as computer tables, printers and chairs, and the Bank provides assistance to maintain and upgrade these computer labs when necessary to ensure that the facilities benefit many batches of students. Significantly enhancing the value of these IT Labs, the bank recently launched an innovative online education programme under which more than 20,000 children from 20 schools are now accessing carefully selected mathematics and science lessons via a specially created web platform, to supplement their regular lessons in these subjects. Commercial Bank CSR Trust gifts necessary critical care equipment and other infrastructure facilities to government hospitals in the country. The emphasis is on maternity and children’s hospitals when making such donations. Among other community commitments of Commercial Bank’s CSR Trust are assistance to war heroes, and support for projects to promote and conserve the country’s cultural heritage. These initiatives have already won Commercial Bank several local and international awards, including four awards at the 2013 Best Corporate Citizen awards presented by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, at which the Bank was also adjudged one of Sri Lanka’s 10 best corporate citizens. Earlier this year, the Bank received the Gold and Silver awards for its corporate social responsibility initiatives in Education and Healthcare respectively at the JASTECA CSR Awards presented by the Japan Sri Lanka Technical & Cultural Association. The Commercial Bank CSR Trust also won the prestigious Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Award (AREA) in the sphere of ‘Social Empowerment’ at the 2014 awards held in New Delhi. The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the world’s top 1000 Banks for four successive years, Commercial Bank operates a network of 237 computer-linked service points and the country’s single largest ATM network of 597 terminals. The bank has been adjudged ‘Best Bank in Sri Lanka’ for 16 consecutive years by ‘Global Finance’ Magazine and has won multiple awards as the country’s best Bank from ‘The Banker’, ‘Finance Asia’, ‘Euromoney’ and ‘Trade Finance’ magazines.