NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANK

RANK 1

NUMBER OF AWARDS 92

SECTOR WINNER

Listed (1) | Banking (1)

Q: How does National Development Bank (NDB) benchmark excellence?

A: Excellence is one of NDB’s six corporate values and one that’s embraced by the bank’s entire team. Therefore, striving for excellence is self-driven. We set benchmarks for ourselves to do better than before and often, draw inspiration from the best practices of our local and international peers.

A notable aspect of NDB is that such excellence spans a wide range of performance areas including financial; innovation and digitalisation; excellence in customer service, as well as by being a good employer; corporate social responsibility and so on. This equilibrium has fostered excellence and consistency over the years.

Dimantha Seneviratne

Director
Chief Executive Officer

It’s also what has enabled NDB to secure triple awards as ‘Best Bank’ from three of the most prestigious global financial publications in the world – namely, the US’ Global Finance magazine, The Banker (a UK journal) and Euromoney (an EU publication) –over the years, which is a rare feat for any bank.

We are also pleased to have been bestowed with coveted awards at leading programmes conducted by respected and professional local bodies.

Q: In what ways do awards and accolades enable businesses to strive for betterment – against a backdrop of social, political and economic upheavals?

A: The benefits come from intrinsic best practices and strong governance frameworks, skill sets and team attitudes, their passion to perform and commitment to excellence. When these are instilled in an organisation, it invariably leads to awards and accolades. Such organisations will weather unprecedented challenges, remain resilient and even thrive.

The motivation stemming from awards and accolades will propel teams to do better, strive harder and deliver the best to their stakeholders – thereby beating the odds amidst turbulent times.

Q: In your experience, how do local awards and recognition schemes fare in comparison to their global and regional counterparts?

A: Local awards schemes are more broad-based and have a large numbers of categories. There are rigorous evaluations according to each category, often involving written submissions, and interviews and presentations from the senior management, together with question and answer sessions.

So it’s a comprehensive evaluation; and from the applicants’ point of view, a good platform is provided to present their respective business cases. To my mind, the most notable factor in local awards is that their evaluations act as a guide, and help drive and shape best practices in local organisations across many aspects.

Conversely, in top global awards programmes, evaluation is based on written submissions including customer testimonials, and could well be supplemented by inputs from industry analysts, corporate executives and technological experts. Evaluators also use independent research to evaluate a series of objective and subjective factors.

Whatever the form may be, both aim to recognise the best with objective assessments while adhering to the highest forms of reliability and credibility.

Q: Corporate image, brand presence and awards – how are these aspects interwoven in terms of your organisation?

A: We often share the good news of winning awards across multiple communication modes of print, electronic and social media – dedicating such wins to all our key stakeholders, who inspire us to deliver and do better.

Awards have greatly helped us to enhance our corporate brand image, and entrench our presence deeper in communities and across more customer segments.

“The most notable factor in local awards is that their evaluations act as a guide, and help drive and shape best practices in local organisations

When we continue to win certain awards in consecutive years or at a greater frequency, the NDB brand and the awards’ names become synonymous, strongly instilling the notion that this is the ‘Best Bank in Sri Lanka’ or ‘Best Digital Bank in Sri Lanka’ – and now, one of the ‘Most Awarded’ corporates in Sri Lanka.

The notable progression in NDB’s brand strength in the recent past can be partly attributed to the illustrious awards that the bank has been winning over the last five to six years.

Q: Awards and accolades, motivation or pressure… What are your views on how business perceives awards and recognition schemes – especially during difficult economic times?

A: It’s definitely a motivator and not pressure of any sort. We do not perform for awards. Our performance is driven by a passion for excellence, and an unwavering commitment to make a sustainable and positive impact on all stakeholders, who partner us and the nation at large.

Concepts of customer-centricity, service excellence and innovation are strategic imperatives for us. Resilience, agility, adaptability and responsiveness to shifting operating landscapes are inherent to ‘Team NDB.’

The fusion of these invariably makes our performance award-winning across multiple aspects. This has been our experience over the years. Any independent, third party endorsement of our hard and smart work is a definite motivation.

Q: How do awards play a role in attracting and retaining customers?

A: Awards give customers a sense of confidence and assurance about the entities they choose to partner. In the banking sector where there are a large number of players and with their baseline products being homogeneous, awards help customers make an informed decision about which bank they should take on board or entrust their wealth to.

We see a tremendous inclination in certain target customer groups as regards patronising banks that act responsibly towards the environment and community, and those that offer a seamless banking experience through digital modes.

In this atmosphere, the awards we win for corporate social responsibility and digital innovation earn us much mileage. Retention is achieved more because of a delightful consumer experience and the value we add to customers’ financial prosperity and well-being – with awards affirming customer choices.

“In the banking sector where there are a large number of players and with their baseline products being homogeneous, awards help customers make an informed decision

Q: In what ways are awards and recognition schemes helping businesses to attract – and more importantly, retain – employees?

A: In the same way that awards attract customers, I believe employees also draw confidence from the various accreditations of potential employers.

Awards spur a sense of pride and achievement in employees, particularly as they are an endorsement of their commitment and dedication – for example, the Great Place To Work certification.

We have also secured the EDGE Certification for gender equity. Even awards for corporate social responsibility go a long way as certain employees are quite concerned about these aspects. So awards are a definite catalyst in staff retention as well.

NDB was adjudged the Best Bank in Sri Lanka by the US’ Global Finance magazine in 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2022; the EU’s Euromoney publication in 2022; and as the Bank of the Year – Sri Lanka by the UK’s journal The Banker in 2018 and 2021.

Telephone 2448448 (Extn. 35001) | Email ceo@ndbbank.com | Website www.ndbbank.com