BoC goes for business class banking service

The Bank of Ceylon (BoC), a pioneer state bank in the country celebrated 67 years of service on Tuesday by launching the business class banking service for private and public sector enterprises. The new banking facility is designed to provide services to large public and private sector enterprises through the islandwide online banking network.

For the first six months of the year the BoC focused on retail banking such as raising deposits,lending money and providing customer services. With the 67th anniversary, the BoC management decided to focus on corporate banking, said Chairman BoC, Udayasiri Kariyawasam. We will categorise the corporate class and provide them with value added service sans any charge. We will focus on providing our business class banking services to big conglomerates, bluechip companies and subsidiary companies in an effective and efficient manner, he said.

The bank marked its 67th year in operations by providing credit cards to journalists with a 50 percent reduction on the joining fee. The bank presented credit cards to 14 journalists.

Responding to questions posed by journalists whether the BoC had special benefits to offer its credit card holders, Kariyawasam said the bank offered the same facilities offered by other banks.

Kariyawasam said the bank will provide world-class banking facilities to the country's largest private and public sector enterprises and will maximise their operational efficiency.

Enterprises will be abe to reap huge benefits with the online banking facilities through the 220-branch network.By the end of the year we hope to increase our online banking network to 302. Bank officials said due to lack of communication infrastructure facilities the bank is unable to connect its online facilities to certain areas in the country.

General Manager BoC, S.N.P. Palihena said the BoC, a pioneering and leading state bank has made huge investments to link its branch network to an online network. We have the best software to provide worldclass banking facilities.

BoC, the largest bank in the country is ranked among the 1,000 largest banks in the world. Holding approximately 30 percent of the country's banking assets it was rated AA (sri) by Fitch rating.

It also holds the largest customer base of over 5.8 million customers.

- LF