Mr. Dimantha Seneviratne, Director/ CEO of NDB Bank accepting the Best Banking CEO 2022 award from Ms. Shobia Clinton – Publisher CEO Sri Lanka at the awards ceremony held on 01 February 2023 at Cinnamon Lake Side

Dimantha Seneviratne, Director/ CEO of National Development Bank was recently felicitated with the life time award of the Best Banking CEO of 2022, by the CEO Sri Lanka Magazine, in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the progress of the Sri Lankan banking sector, in one of the most turbulent years. CEO Sri Lanka is a publication dedicated to honouring leadership in the business world.  Their awards programme is aimed at shine a spotlight on outstanding leadership personalities, who are instrumental in driving exceptional business performance and shaping resilient corporates that make tremendous contribution towards the socio-economic progress of Sri Lanka. The life time awards category, with which Dimantha was recognized is notable for the fact that contestants are selected by the CEO Magazine evaluation panel based on a highly independent process, as opposed to self-submitted applications.

NDB’s CEO is a veteran in the Sri Lankan banking sector with over 30 years of dynamic experience to his credit from the APCA and MENA regions. He is one of the few top executives in the sector who brings in the fusion of trans-continental expertise, particularly from multi-national banks to the local domain. He’s been at the helm of NDB for over six years now. Under his transformational leadership, which he is widely known for, NDB became the fourth largest listed bank in Sri Lanka. The Bank also underwent significant strategic evolutions from being a conventional bank to one that is digi-savvy, leading the industry with ground breaking innovations. The Bank’s exceptional performance, including the significant contribution it has made for the betterment of the overall industry has been frequently endorsed by third party awards programs during Dimantha’s tenor. The highlights of such awards are winning triple affirmations as the Best Bank in Sri Lanka by three of the most prestigious bodies, Global Finance USA, The Banker UK and Euromeny, and emerging as the most awarded corporate in Sri Lanka as published by LMD.

Prior to joining NDB Dimantha was the CEO at Pan Asia Banking Corporation (PABC), where again he was instrumental in turning around the bank to a mid-sized player and propelling it as the fastest growing bank in Sri Lanka. His previous engagements were with HSBC for over 17 years in Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Middle East.

His contribution to the banking sector also comes by way of various memberships and posts he holds in associations committed to uplift the sector. In his role as the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Banks’ Association in 2019/2020, he led the industry through the unprecedented challenges brought by the pandemic. He devised many solutions in safe-guarding the interests of critical stakeholders such as customers and employees, whilst ensuring the overall sector stability and resilience in close liaison with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and peer banking CEOs. He has also been a Past President of the Association of Professional Bankers, a former director of the Credit Information Bureau – Sri Lanka and Lanka Clear Pvt Limited, critical entities within the banking and financial services eco-system.

Dimantha continues to drive a number of worthy initiatives in the banking sector with deep socio, economic and environmental impact. Examples include empowering the women’s market segment through flagship initiative Sri Lanka Vanithabhimana (in collaboration with NewsFirst MTV), NDB Jayagamu Sri Lanka supporting SMEs, innovators and entrepreneurs, financial inclusion, driving digitization, lending to renewable energy generation and reforestation projects to tackle climate change.

Dimantha is a Fellow of CIMA UK, CGMA and a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Bankers Sri Lanka. He holds a MBA from the PIM of University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Bachelor’s degree from the same university. He is also a Post Graduate Diploma Holder in Computer System Design from the National Institute of Business Management and has successfully completed the High Potential Leadership Programme at the Harvard Business School, Boston, USA, in 2016.