Bank of Ceylon was awarded the Asian Development Bank’s ‘Leading Partner Bank in Sri Lanka for Trade Services’ recently. BOC was awarded this title with the ADB under the Trade Finance Program (TFP) at the ADB’s TFP Awards held in line with the Global Trade Review’s annual conference in Singapore.
The ceremony was held in Shangri-la’s Rasa Sentosa Hotel, Singapore. This was the first time a Sri Lankan bank has received the title. The ADB’s Trade Finance Program looks into bridging the gaps in trade finance and reviews their impact on economic growth and job creation through developing SMEs across developing Asia. Being the No.1 bank in Sri Lanka for trade finance BOC is considered the largest trade desk in the country. The bank has pioneered development of Sri Lankan trade finance by building a bridge with the international trade finance network through trust and corporation that has been built over 78 years.
 D.P.K. Gunasekara
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“It was indeed an outstanding moment to be recognized by one of the world’s leading banking institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and we take this opportunity to thank our staff who have contributed immensely and all our customers who have been with us, enabling us to achieve this award,” said the Deputy General Manager Corporate and Offshore Banking, D.P.K. Gunasekara. As a provider of a complete range of corporate financial services, BOC Corporate Trade Services has already being recognized for its superior quality of service through ISO 9001:2008 certification, being the first to be awarded such among all other banks and has consolidated its position since 2011.
BOC also possesses a strong and wide banking network of over 800 foreign agents covering every part of the world and has gained acceptance for its stability and trustworthiness throughout, which is another value addition to clients who deal through the bank. In order to accommodate different types of needs of corporate clients, the bank has clustered its services under three main units namely Corporate Credit, Offshore Banking and Trade Services.
The total portfolio consists of project lending, operational and working capital finance, medium and short term corporate loans, trade finance, syndicate loans, bank guarantees, advising letters of credit, transferring letters of credit, adding confirmation, handling duty rebates, providing status reports, cash management and treasury operations. The vast asset base it possesses has enabled BOC to earn the highest single borrower exposure limit, thus enabling it comfortably meet any macro investment objective of any corporate giant in the country.
Continuing to lead the banking and financial services landscape in Sri Lanka, BOC has enabled many companies and individuals of all walks of life to improve their financial positions over time. Thus BOC has contributed greatly towards the sustainable economic development of the country.
The bank earned global recognition as one of the top 1000 banks in the world, (Country rank No.1) as listed by The Banker Magazine (UK). It claimed its award as the only Sri Lankan brand recognized as one of Asia’s Best Brands in 2013 by the Chief Marketing Officer’s Council (CMO Council) based in Mumbai, India. Brand Finance Lanka has ranked BOC as the country’s No. 1 brand for the last nine consecutive years.
It was also conferred Master Brand status for the year 2017- 2018 by the CMO Council Asia. It has passed exceptional milestones in recent years such as becoming the first to gain over Rs.1.5 trillion assets, over Rs.one trillion deposits and over Rs. one trillion advances.
Focusing on the bank’s achievement, Fitch Rating Lanka ranked BOC at AA+(lka) which is the highest rating awarded to a local commercial bank and ICRA (lk) awarded AAA rating which is the highest credit quality rating issued by ICRA Lanka.
BOC won the merit award for the Annual Report 2015 under state owned enterprises category at the Excellence in Integrated Reporting Awards – 2016 conducted by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka.