Expanding its efforts to inculcate a resilient savings habit among the nation’s youth, Sri Lanka’s premier retail bank, HNB PLC, announced the opening of a new Student Savings Unit at St. Sebastian's College, Moratuwa.

The new unit was declared open at a special ceremony at the school with the participation of HNB’s Managing Director/CEO, Jonathan Alles together with senior management from the bank and HNB Director and past pupil of St. Sebastian's College, Nilanth De Silva.

St. Sebastian’s College’s Rector, Rev. Fr. Ranjith Andradi said “Our college has long maintained a strong and active relationship with HNB and we were eager to partner with the bank to establish our own Student Savings Unit. In our consultations with HNB we identified the need to teach children about financial responsibility from an early age, and this starts with being responsible with their pocket money.

“We express our heartfelt gratitude to HNB in partnering with the College to help our students develop healthy financial habits,” noted Rev. Fr. Ranjith Andradi.

Student savings units were introduced by HNB in 1994. Since then, the bank has expanded its service to cover 168 Students Savings Units across Sri Lanka. Through the units, student managers are groomed to take leadership in running a mini bank in school and get actively involved in promoting the savings habit among fellow students. The bank trains over 1,000 students annually in this capacity.

HNB’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Alles, speaking on the occasion said “We at HNB are privileged to expand our Student Savings Units in schools and are thankful to St. Sebastian’s for giving us the opportunity.

“Financial education is an important component of school going children and is their first lesson in money management” Alles stated, adding that lessons, such as developing budgets, savings, investing for college and the wise and responsible use of credit are learned by students in the process.

Established in 1854, St Sebastian’s Moratuwa stands among Sri Lanka’s oldest and most prestigious educational institutions, serving as a centre of learning and education for over 3,000 students. Moving forward, Alles explained how the bank would further assist the School with the introduction of several other innovative, technology enabled services with a view to streamlining the school’s administrative operations to gradually move to a cashless payment ecosystem within the school, that will help the School effect an efficient and streamlined administrative procedure.

Photo captions: (Above) Rev Fr Ranjith Andradi, Rector St. Sebastian's College, Jonathan Alles, Managing Director/CEO of HNB and Nilanth De Silva, Board Director, HNB opening the new Student Savings Unit and (below) Managing Director/CEO of HNB, Jonathan Alles with Rev Fr Ranjith Andradi, Rector St. Sebastian's College, Nilanth De Silva, Board Director, HNB , Romesh Fernando, Master in charge of Students Savings Unit, Ruchira Fernando – Assistant Manager, HNB Moratuwa and student managers of the College