The Bank has ended the year 2020 as the most generous lender among the country’s private banks.
This high volume of concessionary loans was in addition to the relief the bank granted to customers in the form of debt, capital or interest moratoriums on a staggering 81,387 existing loans with a capital outstanding of Rs. 443 billion as well as repayment of outstanding credit card balances, the bank disclosed recently.
This was disclosed by Commercial Bank Managing Director S. Renganathan adding that “they are proud to end the year as the leading provider of COVID-19 linked concessionary loans among the private banks, and the process continues.”
The total of Rs. 29.6 billion in COVID-19 support loans disbursed by the bank as at 30 December 2020 under multiple relief schemes to provide working capital loans to pandemic affected businesses included loans provided under the Central Bank mandated program as well as the bank’s own support schemes.
Under the working capital loan scheme titled ‘Saubagya COVID-19 Renaissance facility’ launched by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Commercial Bank registered 5,637 applications with a total value of Rs. 28 billion over the three phases of the programme and disbursed 5,387 loans with a value of Rs. 26.6 billion at the close of 2020.
Notably, Commercial Bank disbursed the highest loan value within a short period during the first wave of the pandemic, and disbursed Rs. 2.8 billion, Rs. 17.7 billion and Rs. 6.1 billion respectively under Phases I, II and III of the program.
Moreover, the bank lent another Rs. 1.4 billion under the Liquidity Facility for Contractors in the construction sector and other suppliers to the Government.
Commercial Bank became the first private bank in Sri Lanka to surpass Rs. 1.5 trillion in assets, Rs. 1 trillion in deposits, and Rs. 900 billion in loans in 2020.
Sri Lanka’s most awarded financial institution by far; Commercial Bank operates a network of 268 branches in Sri Lanka.
The bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; and the Maldives, where the bank has a fully-fledged Tier I bank with a majority stake.