Q: How has the bank played a part in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 crisis?

As an essential service, we strived to ensure that customers enjoyed uninterrupted banking services while ensuring that the health and safety of our employees remained paramount.

Our priority was to somehow accommodate and provide timely solutions to customers who were facing various unforeseen challenges. As a full-service commercial bank, it was very important that we offered pragmatic solutions with flexibility so that customers could be supported as they navigated this trying period.

I must emphasise that our ongoing digital transformation initiatives such as online banking and ATM/CDM expansion were vital to offering customers uninterrupted service.

To ensure that we meet these objectives, the bank also introduced services such as ‘doorstep banking’ whereby customers were able to request for a bank representative to be sent to where they were in order to carry out banking transactions from the safety of their homes.

Q: In what spheres has this assistance made a mark, in our assessment?

It goes without saying that the initiatives taken in the banking sphere are crucial. Banks are an essential service for citizens and the banking sector is the veritable backbone of the economy.

The essential nature of our services dictated bank’s approach to tackling the COVID-19 crisis at every point in time – throughout the curfew and beyond.

Q: As far as the workforce is concerned, how did your bank assist people during the extended curfew?

We take pride in our dedicated staff, without whom navigating these tough waters wouldn’t have been possible. The bank, which generally functions with around 2,000 employees, operated with approximately 250 dedicated individuals during this time; but we never failed to meet the needs of our customers.

We’re grateful for their commitment to work tirelessly to ensure that DFCC Bank’s mission to be the ‘Bank for Everyone’ is upheld at all its customer touch points – i.e. from opening a simple savings account to wealth management through digital products and services that the bank has been able to deliver.

To better aid our internal processes, DFCC joined hands with FineTech Sri Lanka to launch Google G-suite Enterprises in May; it thus became the first in the banking sector in this country to do so. This enabled us to smoothly transition our staff to work from home (WFH) with minimal disruption to their day-to-day activities and with no impact on the bank.

We also provided facilities for our staff members to increase their mobility and encourage a WFH culture. Furthermore, team members also played a key role in our centralised acquisition efforts during this time, and we’re grateful to them for being our representatives in the market as well as the face of DFCC Bank to our customers.