HSBC Sri Lanka garners Asian Banking awards

HSBC Sri Lanka, in the backdrop of completing 129 years of operation in the country, continued its leadership position as the best International Retail Bank of the year, at the Asian Banking & Finance Retail Banking Awards 2021 for the fifth time, since 2016.

This year over 140 exceptional banks from 31 countries were recognised for their continuous drive to grow and provide services to customers amidst several uncertainties presented by the COVID- 19 pandemic. Winning banks were judged for their resilience and ability to adapt and leverage digital technology amidst the crisis, and cater to the ever- changing customer preferences and increased comfort with digital products and services, to benchmark themselves against market competition, HSBC Sri Lanka said in a media release.

Nadeesha Senaratne, Country Head of Wealth & Personal Banking HSBC said, “This award is a testament to the dedication and commitment of our Wealth & Personal banking team in Sri Lanka and the customer confidence in HSBC. It further proves that our strategy to invest in technology and help customers adapt to the new normal with digital banking products and services, and making banking fast, easy to use and secure, is paying off.”

The release said that this year HSBC rolled out several digital banking channels for customers to be able to bank from anywhere, anytime. Customers, who had been slow to adopt digital in the past, were forced to embrace technology during the pandemic. More than 80 percent of the bank's clients now use digital channels including mobile banking, e- wallets, real- time cash deposit machines and other digital services, it said.

The same applies to corporate banking where HSBC has a 90 percent digital penetration rate and 70 percent mobile penetration for the client group.