The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has again been declared the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s) ‘Leading Partner Bank’ in Sri Lanka for trade and finance transactions.
This is the third consecutive year that Commercial Bank has been honoured with this title at the ADB Trade and Supply Chain Finance Programme (TSCFP) Awards that recognise the contributions of leading partner banks to trade in Asia and the Pacific. The 2023 awards ceremony took place in Singapore.
The award was presented to Commercial Bank for recording, with the ADB’s assistance, the highest number of transactions in Sri Lanka’s trade and supply chain finance domain between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023. Commercial Bank was among 25 banks that were recognised in 15 categories at the ADB TSCFP Awards ceremony.
Commercial Bank’s Assistant General Manager, Corporate Banking, B. A. H. S. Preena said: “Commercial Bank is among the biggest facilitators of trade in Sri Lanka, offering the tools, techniques and instruments that help protect both buyers and sellers from trade-related risks and making it easier for businesses to transact with one another. This award is an important endorsement of this role we play.”
Commercial Bank’s partnership with the ADB contributes to the growth of the Bank’s trade finance portfolio via increased credit lines, expanded relationships with correspondent banks, reduced cash collateral requirements, enhanced ability to maintain or attract new clients, critical support during times of crisis, low-risk access to new and challenging markets, expanded geographic coverage to service export clients and the ability to leverage existing country line and issuing bank limits, a Bank spokesman said. Products and services such as documentary credit, issuing of letters of guarantee, providing expert advice on forward exchange contracts, document collection, providing shipping guarantees, marine insurance, and advance payments, and assistance with entrepot trade shipments among others, have strengthened its performance in the trade and supply chain finance sphere.
