Sri Lanka

Hatton National Bank describes itself as a pioneer in small and medium-sized enterprise banking in Sri Lanka, and so it is. Most of the island’s lenders take the segment seriously, but no financial institution onshore does it as well, or as comprehensively.

NDB Bank, winner of the award for best bank in Sri Lanka, scoops this prize too, in recognition of its years of consistent effort, innovative thinking and fruitful labour. NDB’s premium banking service, Privilege Banking, has taken off in recent years. It opened three new dedicated centres in 2018, serving NDB’s 7,305 high net-worth customers – or anyone who maintains a deposit of more than SLRs5 million ($27,800) with the bank. Total HNW deposits rose 24% in 2018 to SLRs126 billion.

Digital banking in Sri Lanka is a work in progress. Several lenders in the private and public sectors are hard at work formulating pan-institutional digital platforms or bolting on new services, then proclaiming their effectiveness and pre-eminence.

Sri Lanka’s capital markets are shallow by regional standards. Chunky initial public offerings and M&A deals are rare, while most debt sales are limited in scale. Yet the industry has talent, as demonstrated by NDB Investment Bank.

HSBC has been a trailblazer in Sri Lanka’s banking market virtually from the day it opened its doors in Colombo in 1892. Standard Chartered and Citi, the other viable candidates for this award, both have a solid and long-standing presence in the market. But neither can compete with HSBC, which focuses its time and resources on four areas: credit cards, premium banking, big Sri Lankan corporates and foreign multinationals working onshore.

NDB Bank’s evolution into Sri Lanka’s best-run lender didn’t happen overnight. The bank started life as a development lender in 1979, and was privatized and listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange in 1993.

Its local banks have invested heavily in technology, but many customers still prefer the old-fashioned ways: paper ledgers and physical tellers. And while the country’s fintech industry is filled with promise, it remains stuck in first gear.

BoC has only just opened its first Sri Lankan branch, but already it wants to be the biggest foreign player in the market. In an exclusive interview, Asiamoney sits down with the lender’s senior local bankers to discuss its goals and ambitions.