PEOPLE’S BANK
RANK 25
NUMBER OF AWARDS 13
Q: In your opinion, what are the reasons behind the many awards and accolades won by People’s Bank?
A: People’s Bank – through its 60 years of operations – has grown into a strong brand with an enviable channel network, a comprehensive product portfolio and cutting-edge digital capabilities.
Our multifaceted approach towards reaching excellence has resulted in the bank winning many local and global accolades every year.
Furthermore, our commitment to areas such as sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and reporting excellence has brought us recognition in the banking sector.
Q: How can awards and accolades solidify a corporate’s reputation as a trustworthy brand?
A: Banking is essentially a trust-based business. A brand earns trust through its visibility, operations and recognition in the wider community. Therefore, being honoured and gaining credible recognition is pivotal to building a trustworthy brand.
Q: What were the highlights of winning these accolades in 2021?
A: Being recognised in this manner for being one of the most awarded entities in Sri Lanka is a source of immense pride for us and a truly humbling experience.
Accolades such as these encourage us to strive to reach even higher levels of excellence in our operations, ultimately resulting in customers being rewarded with a better banking experience.
Q: How would you describe the bank’s brand presence here in Sri Lanka?
A: People’s Bank is one of the top three brands in the country. Our brand presence is constantly being communicated via the branch network – which happens to be the largest in the country – and through the bank’s digital space.
In addition, we continue to strengthen brand visibility through a range of marketing communication activities.
However, our most important brand presence is in the minds of the more than 14 million customer base, which is the largest in Sri Lanka.
Q: What aspects of People’s Bank operations were responsible for winning awards, in your assessment?
A: We have been recognised in multiple areas; broadly speaking, we’ve been honoured for our accomplishments in spheres such as operational excellence, brand strength, digital superiority, sustainability and positive impact on the community, and reporting excellence.
Q: In the context of performance, how important is financial reporting for any organisation?
A: Financial reporting is quite important for an organisation to garner public trust. This is especially so for a bank as the financial services industry is built on customer confidence.
Financial performance reporting, when it is done in accordance with globally accepted standards, serves as independent health checks that are accessible to the public. They enable the differentiation of strong organisations from the weak.
Q: And what are the bank’s recent digital initiatives?
A: As the second largest commercial bank in Sri Lanka, People’s Bank enjoys the largest customer base in the country – counting over 14 million customers – along with the largest branch network consisting of over 741 physical contact points.
We have carried out multiple digital initiatives to provide unparalleled access to our services to customers with great convenience and high speed.
For example, People’s Bank facilitated 82.6 million transactions worth over Rs. 1.2 trillion via its island wide network of physical contact points last year. This is a testament to the level of popularity enjoyed by People’s Bank’s Self-Banking Units (SBUs) across the nation.
These SBUs comprise ATMs, CDMs and Self-Banking Kiosks, allowing customers to bank at their convenience 24/7, 365-days of the year.
In addition, we have deployed our digital capabilities for consumer loan processing at 200 branches and will be rolling out this facility to all our branches shortly. This enhancement enables us to disburse loans within 24 hours.
Q: And how about digital banking apps that have become popular in recent years…?
A: Complementing the SBUs, our digital banking apps such as People’s Wave, People’s Wyn and People’s Pay have transformed the digital banking landscape in Sri Lanka.
For example, People’s Wave – the country’s most downloaded banking app with over one million active users – enables users to perform 50 diverse types of financial transactions from the convenience of their homes.
People’s Bank is also the first and only bank in Sri Lanka to be accredited with ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification – the highest international accreditation for information protection and security.
SECTOR WINNER
STATE (3)
