COMBank to expand its overseas footprint

By Lalin FERNANDOPULLE

Commercial Bank Chairman, Dinesh Weerakkodi in an interview with the Sunday Observer Business and Finance said that the bank would look at other overseas locations to expand its regional footprint.

The bank has overseas representation in Saudi, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Jordan. The bank handles a large volume of exports and imports. It also handles a major volume of remittances.

Dinesh Weerakkodi

The Commercial Bank was selected Bank of the year by the prestigious Banker Magazine eight times, Best Bank 14 times by Global Finance, Best Bank Awards from FinanceAsia, Euro Money and Trade Finance magazine.

The bank has financed pioneering projects such as wind power and has the highest number of ATMs. The Commercial Bank is the third largest national player with over 215 branches in the country and 17 branches in Bangladesh. It the only Sri Lankan bank among first1000 banks of the Banker Magazine London.

Weerakkodi said that the bank caters to all sections of the community and is helping the SME sector through the islandwide expanding branch network.

“The bank industry recorded a credit growth of 34 percent last year. Which could be partly attributed to the pent-up demand over the last so many years.

However, such growth cannot be sustained only with domestic deposits”, he said.

The Central Bank has brought in measures to curb credit, which is considered a prudent measure. The 18 percent growth limitation could be exceeded by another five percent to 23 percent if such excesses are funded by foreign currency debt and capital.

Credit growth is expected to continue especially in areas such as infrastructure development, construction, tourism and consumer lending.

“The Central Bank has already invited the major banks to go overseas to raise funds. Many are doing that now and there are opportunities to raise capital especially tier two from overseas sources. We are currently pursuing such options. We have already raised $65m from IFC through a long-term debt” Weerakkodi said.

Investors invest in people, not businesses, it is people who run businesses and those investments in HR can increase investor - confidence in the firm’s ability to deliver on future promises.

The problem however is that people can be emotional, unpredictable and awkward. Furthermore, the right people can be difficult to hire and the wrong ones difficult to fire.

However, a business that pays attention to people and manages them intelligently will find growth easier to achieve and sustain over a long period of time. In the past best we were grateful for having a job and we respected the boss.

He said today, young people have different expectations, they want to work in an environment, which is positive, where they can demonstrate their skills and be valued, very few like to cling on- to-one job unlike the previous generation people who spent their entire career with one organisation.

So no amount of technology, systems, processes, innovation or domain expertise will help if people do not support it and so it is critical for companies to invest in their people.

The board’s job is to provide oversight and focus to the managers running the business. They have to make sure things aredone by the book, but they are also expected to bring their own experience, from other organisations and other industries, to the table to help the company make quality decisions.

Corporate governance is all about aligning the interests of management with the broader set of stakeholders in an organisation. The challenge therefore for a company is to blend these different stakeholders needs effectively.

A board’s usefulness is only as good as its understanding of the firm and that is usually best found on the shop floor. Good

thinking comes when data is looked at from a number of angles and what data are turned into decisions. Board discussions should be where board members examine information shared in terms of historical context and future opportunities.

- LF