People’s Leasing & Finance PLC’s (PLC) Al Safa Islamic Financial Services Unit (IFU) secured multiple awards at the SLIBFI (Sri Lanka Islamic Banking and Financial Industry) Awards ceremony held at Hotel Ramada for the seventh year.
SLIBFI Awards is held to honour best performers in the Islamic Banking and Financial fraternity in Sri Lanka, under nine categories. PLC clinched Gold for the ‘Social Upliftment Award of The Year’, Silver for Leasing Company of The Year and Bronze for Window/ Unit of The Year 2017.
Commenting on winning these noteworthy awards, Lionel Fernando, Senior DGM- Operations of PLC said, “SLIBFI is a sought after award by institutions in the Islamic Banking and Finance sector and PLC is honoured to have received these awards. Our commitments, service towards customer and Shari’ah compliant activities have contributed towards being chosen for these accolades”.
“We launched our Al-Safa Islamic Finance Unit in 2005 and all our activities are carried out strictly in accordance with Shari’ah principles under the guidance of the Shari’ah Supervisory Board. We have eight dedicated branches operating under the Al-Safa Unit at present and PLC is all set to establish an island-wide Al- Safa services network to provide a broader range of financial facilities in line with the global standards in Islamic finance”, said Mohideen Maharoof, Chief Manager- IFU.
As the flagship subsidiary of the state-owned People’s Bank, PLC also is the parent of People’s Insurance PLC, People’s Microfinance Ltd., People’s Leasing Fleet Management Ltd., People’s Leasing Property Development Ltd. and People’s Leasing Havelock Properties Ltd. PLC being the highest rated Non-Bank Financial Institution in the country currently enjoys two international ratings; ‘B+/ B’ a rating equal to the Sovereign by Standard & Poor’s and ‘B’ rating a notch below the Sovereign by Fitch Ratings International. PLC also possesses an ‘AA-(lka)’ National Long Term Rating from Fitch Ratings Lanka. PLC has also been on the S&P Sri Lanka 20 Index of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), since 2014. PLC is the strongest player amongst the NBFI category with an asset base of over Rs. 150 Billion. PLC was listed on the main board of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in November 2011 and is among the 20 largest Blue Chip Companies on the CSE. In recognition of its outstanding achievements, PLC was ranked 15th in the ‘Business Today Top 30’ ranking.
People’s Leasing’s underlying unique strength lies in its ability to provide diverse financial solutions under one roof to its customers spread across the country enabling them to obtain superior customer friendly services.