HNB: 'Best Retail Bank in Lanka'

HNB was recognised as the 'Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka' for the seventh time by the The Asian Banker at the Asian Banker Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards ceremony in Singapore recently.

The International Excellence in Retail Financial Services program is one of the most rigorous, prestigious and transparent awards programs for retail banking in Asia Pacific, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The program evaluates over 250 banks in 42 countries in a thorough evaluation process.

The Asian Banker has said that the award was bestowed upon HNB based on the resilience demonstrated amidst challenging conditions experienced during the year.

In 2014, HNB's rupee current account and savings account (CASA) ratio improved to 47% from 40% in the previous year despite the discontinuation of the flagship lottery scheme while the personal loans recorded an outstanding growth of 83% through a focused sales drive notwithstanding the slowdown in credit growth witnessed by the industry especially during the first half of the year. The Bank was also successful in improving its overall asset quality to the lowest level in the past decade and well below the industry average.

Managing Director and CEO, HNB, Jonathan Alles said, "We are delighted to be recognised as the 'Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka' again.

"This is a testimony to the strong leadership position HNB has built over the years in the retail space."

"Our unrelenting efforts to deliver service excellence through our multichannel distribution strategy, continuous focus on product and technology innovation, sales and relationship banking backed by process improvements and the dedication of the entire HNB team has enabled us to record a standout performance in 2014," he said.