Seeking to cultivate the savings habit in young Sri Lankans, Hatton National Bank rewarded 274 selected winners of the HNB Singithi Depositors competition together with their parents for a special educational tour around a series of landmark locations across Colombo.

Having conducted the competition for the last 4 years, the October 2016 edition of HNB Singithi Savings Month was the largest to date, and continues to provide children from across the island with entertaining and educational experiences that are aimed at inspiring the next generation of Sri Lankans to save, and aspire to greater heights in future.

“It is a true privilege for both me and our team at HNB to host winners of our annual Singithi Savings Month and do our part to make savings habit a fun and rewarding task for the next generation of Sri Lankans.

“We hope that these tours will serve as further encouragement to young Sri Lankans to take a more proactive approach to their savings and in doing so, empower these children with a strong and stable financial future,” HNB Chief Employee Experience Officer / Assistant General Manager - Deposits and Remittances, Kalum Wijesooriya stated.

This year’s tour was comprised of 100 of HNB’s top Sinigithi depositors together with a further 174 winners of the bank’s annual Singithi Art competition. Winners were selected from among art competitions and top savers hosted at 76 HNB Customer Centres across the island, including in all main districts of Sri Lanka including: Kandy, Jaffna, Batticaloa, Ratnapura, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Galle, Polonnaruwa, and other districts around the island.

Each accompanied by one of their parents, the winners gathered at the HNB head office before embarking on a memorable journey of that commenced with a highly educational and engaging guided tour of the Ratmalana Air Force Museum. Following a drive across the city, the children were thereafter given their very first glimpses of the bustling Colombo Port, including a tour of Colombo Dockyard before wrapping up with an exciting tour aboard the Sri Lanka Navy vessel, SLNS Sayurala, an offshore patrol vessel utilized in patrolling deep seas off Sri Lanka’s coast.

“For many of these young children, this year’s fun-filled educational tour amounted to the very first time that they had seen an airplane or a ship first-hand, making the trip a particularly memorable one.

“One of the main reasons we selected these locations was because these are the kind of places that usually require special permission to gain entry and so it would be a difficult thing for these families to have accomplished on their own. It is a very fulfilling for us at HNB to be a part of such an exciting experience for these children, and one which we hope will serve to further enhance their passion for the savings habit in future.” HNB Senior Manager – Deposits, Viranga Gamage stated.

Recognized as leading player in the Sri Lankan banking industry, HNB is a digitally innovative pioneer whose technological sophistication is matched by its outstanding service delivery, factors which have supported the bank in being awarded Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka for the ninth time in 2017.

Photo caption: HNB Singithi winners together with the senior officials of HNB