Commercial Bank’s ‘Arunalu’ rewards country’s brightest young students

Academic achievements have won three young students the approbation of Sri Lanka’s largest private bank, which presented them with Rs. 375,000 in cash prizes recently.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon presented the three top achievers at the 2015 Year 5 scholarship examination with these rewards under the aegis of ‘Arunalu’ – the bank’s signature savings account for children – which is designed to motivate and support student aspirations.

Two of the three students received Rs. 100,000 each in recognition of their feat, while the third received Rs. 175,000 by virtue of being an Arunalu account holder and qualifying for a higher prize under the bank’s eligibility criteria.

The bank said all other eligible Arunalu prize winners will be presented with their prizes at branch level in due course.   

Launched in 1991, Arunalu is Commercial Bank’s key savings account for children of the school going age. The cash prize scheme introduced in 1998 is now the largest Year 5 Scholarship cash prize scheme in the country, with an educational support scholarship scheme for children who are placed first, second and third island-wide each year.

In 2013, Commercial Bank’s Arunalu Children’s Savings Account paid Rs. 4 million in cash rewards to 575 students placed first, second and third in their respective schools at the Year 5 scholarship examination. This was in addition to nine students who were placed first, second and third in the island at that examination. In 2014, 563 students received Rs. 5.3 million from the bank under the scheme.

Offering an interest rate of 6.5% per annum, ‘Arunalu’ is considered the best Children’s Savings Account in Sri Lanka. Besides rewarding students who shine at the national level, the Arunalu Children’s Savings Account presents attractive cash prizes annually to account holders who are the top scorers at the Year 5 scholarship examination in every school, while District winners holding ‘Arunalu’ accounts are given a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each.

‘Arunalu’ accounts can be opened for children below 18 years of age at any of Commercial Bank’s branches island-wide.

The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for five consecutive years, Commercial Bank operates a network of 246 branches and 618 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The bank was ranked the most valuable private sector brand in Sri Lanka in 2014 and has also won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s best bank from several international publications over several years. The bank was adjudged one of Sri Lanka’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in 2013 and 2014.

Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the bank operates 18 branches and Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon. In September 2015, the Bank received regulatory approval for the establishment of a fully-fledged Tier I Bank in the Maldives.