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| Sunday, 9 February 2003 |
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SCB positive about future of banking industry by INDUNIL THENUWARA Sri Lanka is a key market for Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) which completed its merger with the Sri Lankan business of Standard Chartered Grindlays on January 1. The two banks now operate as a single legal entity under a new corporate identity and new logo. "We have a very ambitious growth agenda for the island with emphasis on consumer banking. In the meantime, we will continue to develop our wholesale or corporate operations," Wasim Saifi, Chief Executive Officer, SCB Sri Lanka told the Sunday Observer. The Group acquired the Grindlays operations in the Middle East and South Asia from the ANZ Banking Group in July 2000. This was effected to expand SCB's role and strength in the region. Since then, the two local entities - SCB and Standard Chartered Grindlays - have been in the process of gradual integration and the merger was completed on January 1. SCB started operations in Sri Lanka about 110 years ago, and is now among the two largest foreign banks in the country with a balance sheet of Rs. 40 billion. Customers can access a network of eight branches and 11 automated teller machines across Colombo. It is said to be the largest international bank in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The bank's capital base has, according to Saifi, become very large as a result of the merger. The combined capital base was four billion rupees as at December 31, 2002. In the consumer banking sector, high growth areas like consumer loans and credit cards will receive special attention. "Sri Lanka's credit card market has room for development, but will require the economy to grow by about five to six per cent annually for the size of the market to see any significant growth," the CEO said. He added that differentiation of the product will be the key to success in the credit card market. The company strives to offer new features to its customers as a part of this strategy. "We would be focusing on the Greater Colombo area as we have realised that there is enormous potential here. The size of the outstation market is still too small for us to consider. We will concentrate on Greater Colombo for the next three to four years and depending on how the country and economy progress, we will consider moving into other parts of the country," Saifi said. He said: "Banking reflects the economy of a country. If the economy is sound, banking will flourish. Mergers and acquisitions are the trend throughout the world and we cannot expect such developments to bypass Sri Lanka. Such developments can lead to consolidation and strengthening of an industry." He added that there are already too many banks in Sri Lanka and that the size of the island's economy is much too small to account for them. "However, we are rather positive about the future of Sri Lanka's banking industry. The banking sector here is well developed and quite sophisticated. New technology has arrived much earlier before it did elsewhere in the region and automation took place fairly early. "The human resources in the sector are also quite educated, capable and can match anyone else." The Standard Chartered Group has been a leader in the emerging markets sector for over 150 years. It employs 28,000 people in over 500 offices in more than 50 countries in the Asia Pacific region, South Asia, Middle East, Africa, United Kingdom and the Americas. SCB Sri Lanka employs about 350 personnel. It serves both consumer and wholesale banking customers. Consumer banking provides credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, deposit taking and wealth management services to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses. Wholesale banking provides services to multinational, regional and domestic corporate and institutional clients in trade finance, cash management, custody, lending, foreign exchange, interest rate management and debt capital markets. |
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