The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been declared the ‘Best SME Bank’ in Sri Lanka at the Global Finance Awards 2024 in an emphatic reaffirmation of the Bank’s status as the biggest benefactor by far to the country’s small and medium enterprises.
Commercial Bank received the prestigious Global Finance award in this sphere for the second consecutive year. Announcing the winners of the World’s Best SME Bank Awards 2024 across all regions, Global Finance said it used a proprietary algorithm with criteria – such as knowledge of SME markets and needs, breadth of products and services, market standing, and innovation – weighted for relative importance.
“The winners are those banks that best meet the specialised needs of SMEs in their markets,” the magazine said. Recognised alongside Commercial Bank as the Best SME Banks in their countries in the Asia-Pacific region are banks of the calibre of OCBC Singapore, Maybank – Malaysia, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group – Japan, HDFC Bank – India, Prime Bank – Bangladesh and Vietcombank – Vietnam.
Commercial Bank Deputy General Manager Personal Banking Delakshan Hettiarachchi said: “SMEs have always been a top priority for us, and thisis borne out by the fact that Commercial Bank is the largest lender to Sri Lanka’s SME sector. We continuously engage with our SME customers on many levels, helping to build knowledge and capacity and facilitating networking and access to local and international markets. The Global Finance award is therefore a fitting affirmation of the success of our efforts.”
Among the most recent non-financial initiatives of Commercial Bank to support SMEs were the launch of ‘Commercial Bank LEAP GlobalLinker’ and ‘ComBank Trade Club’ both of which are intended to help businesses penetrate global markets. Additionally, Commercial Bank has an exclusive club for SME customers. The first of its kind in the country, the Commercial Bank Biz Club brings SME customers together in order to create new business opportunities, and to provide them support beyond lending, by way of education, networking, and expert advice from relevant authorities. More than 5,000 SMEs are now members of the Commercial Bank Biz Club.
