Sri Lanka’s most technologically innovative bank, HNB PLC, partnered with LinearSix Pvt Ltd. to introduce ‘Lime’ – a revolutionary fin-tech solution that will radically streamline customer onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. The landmark integration of ‘Lime’ was commemorated at a special ceremony attended by top officials from both organisations, including HNB Managing Director/CEO, Jonathan Alles, and LinearSix CEO, Mario Gooneratne, with the system going live on 1st November 2023.
“HNB has been among Sri Lanka’s most aggressive banks on digital transformation. We have steadily digitalised all back-end processes and established centres of excellence to centralise these back-end processes. We are constantly striving to unlock new ways of enhancing our overall customer experience. This includes a constant focus on cutting down on wait time from a simple transaction or the opening of new accounts, to investments. With the adaptation of Lime, the overall customer journey can now be accomplished in a fraction of the time, ensuring unmatched speed and convenience. This in turn helps us to continue fulfilling HNB’s promise of being a joy to bank with,” HNB Managing Director/CEO, Jonathan Alles stated.
Typically, customer onboarding for the opening of new accounts and other services tends to be a time-consuming process for all banks. Historically, this has been a significant challenge given the amount of information required from customers, as well as the stringent regulatory and due diligence requirements required from banks. “Lime was developed to offer a superior user onboarding process. Its intelligent user interface approach has greatly reduced the time and effort required in onboarding and other areas by dramatically reducing the turnaround time to under five minutes for opening an account,” LinearSix CEO, Mario Gooneratne said.
According to HNB Chief Information Officer, Druvi Vaidyakularatne, the integration of Lime promises to be a game-changer. “Lime’s user-friendly interface simplifies onboarding and reduces training time for employees, regardless of their experience level. Meanwhile, the use of a robust tech stack built on highly scalable and agile, cloud-agnostic technology allows operations management across all HNB branches.”
“This in turn enables HNB to more effectively cater to growing consumer demands. Moreover, the integration of Lime into HNB’s existing infrastructure comes at a fraction of the IT cost associated with traditional solutions adopting a modern software as a service (SAAS) model,” Vaidyakularatne added.
HNB Assistant General Manager, Operations S. Nandakumar, expressed the bank’s intention to expand the application of the Lime solution to its centralised Operations department, aiming to enhance data enrichment and overall operational efficiency. He further remarked that feedback received from both customers and front-line staff has been exceedingly positive following the implementation of the Lime solution. “
With 254 customer centres and 800+ Smart Self-Service Machines (SSMs) nationwide, HNB is one of Sri Lanka’s largest, most technologically innovative private banks. Consolidating its legacy in sustainability, good governance and corporate excellence, HNB was crowned the Best Corporate Citizen for 2022 at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Best Corporate Citizen Awards.
Additionally, HNB was ranked among the World’s Top 1,000 Banks list compiled by the prestigious UK-based Banker Magazine for the sixth consecutive year in 2022, in addition to being crowned the Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka for the 13th occasion at the prestigious International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards 2023 hosted by the Asian Banker Magazine.
LinearSix (www.linearsix.com), is a leading banking and fintech solutions provider, currently focusing on helping both banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFIs) in Sri Lanka accelerate the digital transformation of their operations and scale their business growth.