The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has been recognised as the Best Internet Bank in Sri Lanka in 2016 by the prestigious Global Banking & Finance Review of the UK.

Created to recognise companies of all sizes that are prominent in particular areas of expertise and excellence within the global financial community, the award acknowledges the high quality of service and innovation offered by Commercial Bank’s Online Banking platform.

“Expanding the versatility and reach of our internet banking services has been a key focus area at Commercial Bank over the past two years,” the Bank’s Managing Director/CEO Mr Jegan Durairatnam said. “We are therefore greatly encouraged by this international accolade, which specifically recognises the innovation, achievement, strategy and progressive and inspirational changes taking place within the financial sector.”

Commercial Bank’s Online Banking platform offers a wide range of services such as fund transfers between accounts maintained in eight different major international currencies, cross currency payments which are possible 24/7 covering six major currencies, checking balances of current, savings, investment, loan, and credit card accounts, transfering funds between own accounts and to registered third parties who have Commercial Bank accounts on a real-time basis around the clock, real time fund transfers to any bank in Sri Lanka on the CEFTs network 24/7, payments and fund transfers via Commercial Bank Credit cards for customers who do not want to use the money in their bank accounts, online payments for airline bookings, application for Fixed Deposits, Personal Loans and Housing Loans, investing in Treasury Bills and effecting payments for share trading.

The Online Banking service also supports bill payments to more than 36 entities in nine categories such as Telephone, Electricity, Water, Credit Cards, Insurance, Pay TV, Education, Sports and Recreation and Rates.

The corporate version of Combank Online offers the latest security enhancements such as two layer login; secure image upload where a user can upload a favorite image in to the Online Banking portal so that it would be displayed when signing on, and is capable of allowing single /dual or multi-level authorisation facility for payments, helping large companies to automate many of their payments. Viewing images of deposited and presented cheques is also possible for users of this facility, a first for a Bank in Sri Lanka. Submission of Letter of Credit applications with supporting document uploading too is possible. The Bank has also enabled a corporate administrator facility for companies to manage their internal user authorities as and when required, conveniently without having to contact the bank.

Commercial Bank’s new version of PayMaster, the Bank’s sophisticated online bulk payments platform for corporate customers, also offers enhanced functionality and controls and a new level of security. It is widely used by companies to pay employee salaries, commissions and numerous other payments to their suppliers and customers.

Read in over 200 different countries by Presidents, CEOs, CFOs and senior decision makers within Fortune 500 companies, major banks, financial institutions, Central Banks, and individuals interested in financial markets and news, Global Banking & Finance Review is a leading online and print magazine which has evolved from the growing need to have a more balanced view, for informative and independent news within the financial community.

The only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the Top 1000 banks of the world for six years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 256 branches and 658 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank has won multiple awards as Sri Lanka’s Best Bank, Best Trade Bank, Strongest Bank, Most Respected Bank from a number of local and international institutions and publications over several years and has also been adjudged one of Sri Lanka’s 10 best corporate citizens by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for several years.

Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets, Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon, the Maldives, where the Bank opened a fully-fledged Tier I Bank in September 2016 and Italy, where the Bank launched its own money transfer service in November 2016.