Business Banking

Standard Chartered named Best Retail Bank in Asia

Standard Chartered has been named Best Retail Bank in Asia at the Retail Banker International’s 2008 Global Awards held in London recently.

Retail Banker International (RBI), a leading industry publication, said in its citation, Standard Chartered’s long-stated policy to focus on emerging markets paid off spectacularly in 2007 as it reported a profits bonanza.

Now the fifth largest UK-based bank by market capitalisation, Standard Chartered has grown rapidly in the past few years. RBI also noted that Standard Chartered is now concentrating on deepening customer relationships and cross selling products from the much wider range of services it now offers.

Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Peter Sands, said he is delighted about the outstanding achievement.

“These awards in addition to our nomination for `Best Cross-Border Expansion Strategy’ are an acknowledgement of the outstanding performance and track record of the Consumer Banking,” Sands said.

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Prizes for Western Union, MMBL customers

It was celebration time for Western Union’s customers as the winners of the consumer promotion were announced at a grand event in Colombo.

The customers took home Bajaj Motorbikes, Television sets, Gold coins and mobile phones. The winner of the grand prize drove home a Tata Indica Car. MMBL customers emerged as the luckiest in the draw as 70 per cent of the prizes were bagged by them. MMBL Money Transfer is a principal agent of Western Union in Sri Lanka.

Western Union said this ceremony gives the opportunity to express the commitment to the valued customers. “We hope to bring joy to the lives of our customers through these prizes,” sources said.

There were a total of 176 prizes that included 20 Television sets, five bajaj motorbikes, 33 mobile phones and 74 gold coins. Of these, 123 prizes were bagged by the customers of MMBL Money Transfer (Pvt) Ltd.

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Creating an environmentally sensitive work force at HSBC

HSBC concluded its first ever `Inter Departmental Competition on Climate Change’ by announcing the finalists of the competition. Four teams were selected for their innovative thinking by Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Sri Lanka and the Maldives Nick A Nicolaou.

The first place was awarded to the “Corporate Real Estate” team, whilst teams “Operations Development and Design” and “Human Resources” were awarded second place.

The “Card Centre” team was awarded third place amongst 45 teams actively taking part in this year’s competition.

The competition was open to all internal departments and branches within the bank and each entity was requested to make a presentation on initiatives that could be implemented to minimise the direct impacts on climate change.

Each entry was scrutinised and evaluated against the common objectives of supporting the group’s commitment to climate change, creating an environmentally sensitive workforce and identifying methods of reducing emissions and efficient use of resources.

Out of many productive and innovative proposals, former Head of the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Moratuwa Professor Ajith de Alwis selected four of the best teams.

The criteria for selecting the best proposals were based on practical guidelines originality, ease of implementation, carbon and resource savings and need for team work.

The competition from its inception in 2007 has already implemented some of the best ideas such as recycling paper and toner cartridges, rain water harvesting, minimising utility waste, creating a paperless environment, improving processors to reduce turn around time, trading in used paper for notebooks with third party suppliers and reducing the use of plastic bags by distributing cloth bags to staff.

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Sampath Bank in Mawathagama

Sampath Bank’s newest branch was recently opened at Kurunegala Road, Mawathagama.

The branch is connected to its island-wide network of electronically linked branches providing the most advanced banking services.

Sampath Bank MD/CEO, Anil Amarasuriya said the people in the region now have direct access to a host of unique most advanced banking facilities and quality service through its young and energetic staff that makes the bank renowned for the excellent customer service and could look forward to building strong relationships in the future.