The National Savings Bank (NSB), the largest licensed Specialised Bank in the country, added another feather to its cap by presenting its integrated Annual Report for the fifth consecutive time themed ‘Our Ethos… Our Strength’ to Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera recently. The first copy of the Annual Report was presented to the Finance Minister by the Chairman of the Bank, Jayaraja Chandrasekera at the Finance Ministry recently.
The milestone reflects the bank’s performance within the framework of the economy and its relationship to social and environmental facets.
“At our core, we are an institution committed to fostering a healthy, sustainable and secure savings protocol for everyone,” NSB Deputy General Manager, Finance and Planning, Kithsiri B. Wijeyaratne said.
The bank is today one of the strongest and safest financial institutions in the country.
In the concept of concise communication about the bank’s performance, strategy, governance and the prospects in the context of its external environment, the report is presented in two parts. The ‘Integrated Annual Report 2018’ comprises comprehensive insights about managing capital inputs and value creation process over the short, medium and long term towards its stakeholders.
The ‘Compendium’ contains a detailed analysis of the bank’s corporate governance, risk management practices and statutory reports with external auditor’s opinion and annual financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018.
“We are navigating through the challenges of internal and external drivers, inter-dependencies and trade-offs that influence our ability to create value for our stakeholders in the short, medium and long term,” Wijeyaratne said, adding that the bank focuses on development of integrated thinking with effective communication with a wide range of stakeholders, sustainability development and best practices of Corporate Governance while complying with the requirements specified by the regulatory bodies and international reporting guidelines including International Integrated Reporting (IIR) framework and Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) Standard Guidelines.
The State-owned banking entity is firmly rooted in the national economy as a ‘Domestic Systemically Important Bank’ and serves the nation by contributing to the General Treasury by way of taxes, levies, fees and dividend.
By its statute, the bank invests a minimum of 60 percent of its deposits in guilt-edged government securities, thus becoming the second largest government security holder in the country.
A pioneer in the banking sector, NSB’s branch network comprises 255 outlets, 310 ATMs, 4062 post offices and sub post offices with accounts amounting to 20.4 million at end 2018.
“We will add 10 branches to our branch network this year,” Wijeyaratne said.
The bank participates in the nation building by funding long-term development projects and other socio economic projects of the country and helps the government to maintain stability and sustainability of the financial system.