December 15, 2020: The nation’s largest private sector retail bank, HNB PLC once again secured top rankings among Sri Lanka’s ‘Most Admired Companies’ for the 3rd consecutive year.
The bank was selected for its achievement in business and financial excellence, as well as for offering significant value to their customers, employees and the general community.
Conducted jointly by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and International Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka (ICCSL), the evaluation for the awards found that the Top 10 Most Admired Companies specific common traits which had helped elevate their standing among Sri Lankan corporates.
These included creating a higher-purpose mission, seizing on digital opportunities via new platforms and business models, and ensuring that innovation was not isolated to a department but was a strategic capability.
“We are excited to have been recognised as one of the Top 10 Most Admired Companies in Sri Lanka. This is an acknowledgement of the hard work and dedication that we have committed to our customers, investors and employees,” HNB Managing Director/CEO, Jonathan Alles said.
The 2020 list was compiled following a lengthy and rigorous evaluation based on globally accepted quantitative and qualitative criteria. Companies were evaluated on two rounds with their performance assessed under seven criteria – valuing human relationships, fostering teamwork, experimenting frugally, fulfilling commitments, fighting complacency, winning through multiple means and giving back to the community.
The recognition is the most recent in a string of accolades bestowed on HNB in recognition of its transformational approach to banking. Over the recent past, HNB was also ranked among the Business Today Top 10 and the World Top 1,000 Banks list compiled by the prestigious UK-based Banker Magazine. Based on its performance over the past 25 years, the bank was also included in the LMD Top 100 Club.
Similarly, HNB was presented with the award for Best Sub-Custodian Bank in Sri Lanka at the Global Finance Awards 2020. The award marked the second consecutive year in which the bank was declared country winners in a category which prior to 2018 had been dominated by multinational banks.
Other prestigious accolades won by the bank include the Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka award for 2020 by the Asian Banker Magazine and a total of seven awards at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2019 organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
With 252 customer centres across the country, HNB is one of Sri Lanka’s largest, most technologically innovative banks having won local and global recognition for its efforts to drive forward a new paradigm in digital banking. The first Sri Lankan bank to obtain an international credit rating, HNB is rated on par with the sovereign by Moody’s Investors Service, and the long-term national rating of HNB was revised upward by two notches to AA+ (lka) recently by Fitch Ratings (Lanka) Ltd.