Sampath Bank PLC was adjudged the Overall 1st Runner-up and recognised once again as one of Sri Lanka’s Top Ten Corporate Citizens at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2022 (BCCS Awards) organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. The Bank also became the Category Award Winner for ‘Community Relations’ and Triple Bottom Line Award Winner for ‘Social Sustainability (People)’.
Held for the 19th consecutive year, the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2022 is one of the most anticipated events in Sri Lanka’s corporate calendar. The competition aims to encourage Sri Lankan organisations to adopt best practices relating to environmental, social, and economic sustainability while pursuing corporate goals within the wider context of generational accountability. Open to both large corporates as well as smaller enterprises, it recognizes the efforts of the private and public sector to interact responsibly with its stakeholders, by focusing on the importance of corporate sustainability in the country. The key focal areas of the competition include environment, customer relations, community relations, governance, financial performance, and economic contribution, all of which were evaluated by esteemed panel of national experts in the sustainability fraternity.
Sampath Bank’s innovative and socially impactful response towards Sri Lanka’s marginalised communities was further highlighted when it also won Gold award in the ‘CSR Brand of The Year’ category at the 21st SLIM Brand Excellence Awards held recently. ‘Wewata Jeewayak’, Sampath Bank’s flagship CSR initiative initiated over 20 years ago, is a committed, coordinated effort to restore the traditional irrigation network and thus ensure a dependable supply of water for dry zone farmers to cultivate their paddy lands and reap the harvests of both the Yala and Maha paddy seasons. Under this programme, the Bank has restored 15 tanks up to 2022. The Bank has cautiously increased the investment on this programme to build more resilience in agriculture sector amidst prevailing economic headwinds. Additionally, the Bank has launched ‘Gasai Mamai Pubudu Pothai’ tree planting programme with the participation of schools located in the areas where its ‘Wewata Jeewayak’ tank restoration programme is conducted. The core objective of this programme is to build environmentally conscious future generation. With the progress and positive outcomes of this programme, the Bank launched the vegetable gardening programme with the enthusiastic participation of students, teachers, and principals of schools.
The Bank also initiated a long-term marine protection programme named ‘A Breath to the ocean’ which has an ocean-based component focused on coral replanting and a land-based component focused on replenishing mangrove wetlands. For the mangrove restoration project, the Bank has acquired one hectare of land in the marshy areas of the Anavilundawa Wetland Sanctuary in the Puttalam District and working with Biodiversity Sri Lanka and Department of Wildlife on a long-term project to convert the degraded land into a mangrove forest. The Bank also has taken very important steps to conserve turtles in collaboration with Department of Wildlife. Under this initiative, the Bank will work with Department of Wildlife to build hatcheries at Rakawa village situated in southern coast of the island which is a well-known breeding zone for 5 types of endangered Turtles in the world.
Sampath Bank is a 100% local bank that has deeply rooted itself in the lives of the people of Sri Lanka. Established in 1987, the bank has become a state-of-the-art financial institution that continues to be a market leader today thanks to its constant innovation and customer focused approach to business. It has introduced many firsts to the Sri Lankan banking sector including introducing ATMs to Sri Lanka, extended banking hours, slip-less banking and adaptation of block-chain technology to name a few. As part of its visionary 2022 approach, the bank is steadily transforming itself into a ‘tech company engaged in banking,’ from the traditional approach of a bank adopting technology.