Banking

Pan Asia comes to Bandarawela

The Pan Asia Bank has opened its 48th branch in Bandarawela on June 16, 2011 at No 340/1A, Badulla Road, Bandarawela.

The Chief Guest Badulla District MP Dr. Pushpakumara, declare opens the new branch. Also in picture are Guests of Honour Bandarawela Municipal Council Deputy Mayor Anura Waththuhewa, Pan Asia Bank Chairman A G Weerasinghe and Pan Asia Bank CEO Claude Peiris.

The inauguration of the new branch was marked by Chief Guest Badulla District MP Dr. Pushpakumara, and the Guests of Honour Bandarawela Municipal Council Deputy Mayor Anura Waththuhewa and Pan Asia Bank Chairman A G Weerasinghe.

About Pan Asia Bank

Listed at the Colombo Stock Exchange and in operation for 16 years, the Bank offers a full range of retail and business banking products and services. It has recorded a very successful first quarter in 2011 with a net profit after tax of Rs.196Mn. which is 190% better than the 2010 corresponding period. The bank has already opened six branches within the year, and will continue its vigorous expansion drive with a view to achieving 25 new branches in 2011.

Pan Asia Bank takes pride in its customer centric focus and will be offering a highly personalized service, competitive deposit and loan rates and an array of novel banking products including the Champion Saver Account at an attractive interest of 8% for a savings account, three types of minor savings accounts, pawning with the highest advance amount up to Rs 41,000/- per sovereign and leasing at the lowest market rate down to 1%.

The Bandarawela branch will be headed by Jeevantha Bandara and will be opened for business from 9 am to 4 pm weekdays and from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays.

DFCC Vardhana Banka bags award

Pictured here is DFCC Vardhana Bank’s Central Clearing Team.

Friday, June 17, 2011, Colombo: DFCC Vardhana Bank (DVB), the commercial banking arm of DFCC Bank has won the award for ‘T+1 Best Facilitator’ from Lanka Clear (Pvt) Ltd, in the medium scale category.

The award, which had been won at LCPL’s 5th year celebrations of utilizing the CITS (Cheque Imaging and Truncation System), is in recognition of the bank’s prompt service provided to customers by realizing the funds for their cheques deposited at all DVB branches within the banking hours of T+1.

T+1 is a term used to refer to the cycle of cheque clearing, common to all commercial banks.

“We are proud to receive this award from LCPL. Winning this award, whilst competing with other commercial banks, is certainly a great honour for DFCC Vardhana.

This award is a good indicator of how committed the Bank is towards embracing new technologies in order to make our services more efficient and people-friendly, which is in fact, one of the most important factors for the bank,” said DFCC Vardhana Bank CEO Lakshman Silva.

Commercial Bank introduces tri-lingual mobile application

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, has introduced a new mobile banking application to its portfolio of innovative customer-access products.

The new application which will be initially available to Commercial Bank account holders with Dialog, Airtel and Etisalat mobile phone connections, can be accessed through a menu available in English, Sinhala and Tamil. The new application will enable users to use their mobiles to obtain account balances and mini-statements, make credit card related enquiries, check exchange rates and settle water and electricity bills of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Lanka Electric Company (LECO).

In addition, users can also settle telephone and mobile bills of SLT, Dialog, Mobitel, Etisalat, Airtel, Lanka Bell and Suntel networks, top-up their prepaid mobile accounts and transfer funds between their own accounts 24 X 7 through this application.

“Due to the widespread usage of mobile phones in the country, this is a crucial enhancement of convenience,” Commercial Bank’s Deputy General Manager - Operations Sanath Bandaranayake said. “Developments in mobile, telephone and internet banking options together with investments in physical infrastructure will further strengthen Commercial Bank’s offering to customers.”

“The menu for the application being tri-lingual, enables it to benefit a large segment of our customer base,” he said.

He added that the Bank expects to introduce further value additions to the mobile banking facility in the near future. These would include services enabling customers to remit funds, block lost/stolen cards, order bank statements and cheque books, get information on the status of deposited cheques and access Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s ATM/Branch locator. For customers who need to visit a bank branch on holidays, the Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC offers comprehensive holiday banking facilities through its 28 supermarket banking counters and eight 365-day banking centres.

‘Sampath Bank ‘BizCash’ - Instant Cash for Business

Understanding the need of the customer and coming up with innovative solutions, had always been the strength of Sampath Bank. The recently launched super-fast loan facility which had been, targeted mainly at meeting short term financial requirements of the business community as well as any other person, is just such a product. The urgency faced by entrepreneurs with sudden demands of the business and sudden cash shortfalls experienced by anyone, are a well understood fact by Sampath Bank. In such instances, ‘BizCash’ becomes the ideal product to provide quick and easy financial solutions. Further, this facility would be used as an ideal source to raise funds to invest in Stock Market, if an urgent need arises.

All that a customer needs to do, to make this service available to them, is to contact the manager of their branch. The branch manager will personally assess the requirement and facilitate the loan or overdraft within a very short period of time, by keeping your gold as the only security bond. Even assessment of gold purity, weight and value is done using the latest technology, ensuring no physical harm is caused to the valuables. This is a hassle free and personalized service which is being offered by Sampath Bank, partnering with you at your time of need. While the minimum loan amount should be Rs. 250,000/-, the interest rates are maintained at 1.17% per month, making it all the more worthwhile. Sampath Bank offers a higher value for the gold in the market, making it possible to get every cent’s worth from your valuables.

The customer is able select the method of receiving the loan in the form of cash or in the form of an overdraft facility.