BOC Ran Kekulu savings account to build a secure future for children

Wednesday, 1 October 2014 03:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A child’s world should be filled with love, care and protection that the child receives from the child’s family and the surrounding society. It is a must in every society that a child lives with protection and love and that the child’s rights are well-preserved. This year’s theme for the World Children’s Day “protect children from child labour – extend social protection for children” identifies the need for protecting children from the evil that is prevailing in society against children specially violence and child labour. It is the responsibility of all the people in the country to safeguard children and also take care of elders as we observe both Children’s Day and Elders’ Day which falls on 1 October. Bankers to the Nation, Bank of Ceylon has, as one of its objectives the uplifting of the economic standards of the country, thus improving living standards of all citizens. This will in turn preserve the rights of children by saving them from child labour and providing them with the means to educate them by giving access to food, proper shelter and education. The bank has always been in the forefront providing the required banking and financial support and engaging in CSR activities to enhance the social wellbeing of children in the country. Bank of Ceylon has an array of banking products and services in order to cater to different needs of our children. Ran Kekulu is a children’s savings account from Bank of Ceylon which is focused on building a secure future for the child. It offers a wide range of financial and non-financial benefits through Ran Kekulu accounts, which can be operated without any risk. This account provides an additional 1% interest and offers the account holder hospitalisation/medical insurance charges up to Rs. 100,000 that covers 10 critical illnesses. Further an insurance cover is available for the depositor who opens the account up to a maximum of Rs. 500,000. The depositor becomes eligible for an insurance cover to a maximum of Rs. 1 million if he/she maintains multiple Ran Kekulu accounts depending on the account balance. Furthermore, 2,000 scholarships worth Rs. 10,000 each are granted annually to Ran Kekulu account holders that emerge successful at the Grade 5 scholarship examination. A minimum balance of Rs. 5,000 maintained in a Ran Kekulu account qualifies the account holder for most of the privileges mentioned here. In this year with the Bank’s 75th anniversary celebrations bank has arranged an Art Competition for BOC Ran Kekulu account holders that offers winners four trips to Disneyland. The competition will be held under four categories. Those are pre schools, Grade 1 to 5, Grade 6 to 9 and Grade 10 to 13. The competition is organised in two stages. Firstly all paintings will be displayed at provincial level and 1st, 2nd and 3rd places altogether will be selected from each category. In addition to this, 1880 paintings will be selected for consolation prizes from all provinces. Also 2,000 paintings will be selected for the national level competition from four categories. National level winners’ paintings will be exhibited and the award ceremony will be held in Colombo on 31 October. The bank has initiated its sustainability programs to encourage education for children in a more comprehensive way. Apart from its Ran Kekulu Children’s savings account, the bank also maintains students’ savings units at schools. Ran Kekulu Sansada, BOC’s school savings units help students to save their pocket money at school level. Ran Kekulu Sansada is a bank’s mini model branch at schools. Ran Kekulu Sansada helps students by exposing them to a banking experience from their childhood while establishing the savings habit in their mindset. BOC operates nearly 4000 school savings units at present. BOC has been conducting ‘Ran Kekulu Hapana’ Grade 5 scholarship seminars from year 2000 with the purpose of supporting students who are preparing themselves for the Grade 5 scholarship examination. These seminars are conducted by a panel of well-experienced professional teachers specially trained for the Grade 5 scholarship examination. BOC has conducted over a 1,000 seminars island-wide up to now. The bank also conducts a psychosomatic seminar for parents of the same students to educate them as to how they can facilitate their children for the Grade 5 scholarship examination. Similarly the bank encourages students to excel in their Advanced Level in areas of science, mathematics, arts and commerce by awarding 18 plus scholarships annually. The 3G savings account from Bank of Ceylon is aligned with the World Children’s Day and Elders’ Day. This unique saving method ‘BOC 3G Savings’ allows a customer to link three generations of a customer’s family (the ‘3G’ concept) and to save when the customer shops and spends. This allows a customer to save and set aside money to care for their loved ones. This unique product gives the opportunity to care for children and elderly parents as they shop with BOC Debit Card. This is a concept of ‘saving while spending’ and facilitates the customer to make a savings build up for their children or to make some money available for parents, in small sums without much effort or becoming a burden on their pockets or their busy schedules For the senior citizens, the bank has introduced the ‘BOC Abhimana’ Savings Account and ‘The Senior Citizen’s Fixed Deposits’ with higher interest rates. The Bank of Ceylon provides additional interest for senior citizen accounts. They are also entitled for an ATM/ debit card to withdraw money around the clock. Through its special accounts Bank of Ceylon has served the most important unit in society, the family, guiding it in providing a righteous and safe path to secure their future.