The Commercial Bank of Ceylon commemorated 20 years of remittance operations in Qatar recently with a celebratory event hosted for the management and employees of Exchange Houses, the Bank’s premier customers and other stakeholders in the Arabian Peninsula state.
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Qatar, Mohamed Mafaz Mohideen was the chief guest at the event at the Alwadi Hotel Doha – MGallery.
The welcome address was by AGM, Digital Banking of Commercial Bank, Pradeep Banduwansa. The keynote address was delivered by the Bank’s Chief Operating Officer S. Prabagar.
The Bank’s remittance partners in Qatar, select Sri Lankan customers and the Bank’s staff, including DGM, Retail Banking and Marketing, Hasrath Munasinghe, Senior Manager - Global Remittances, Mrs Rangika Chandrasena and the Bank’s Business Promotions Officers in Qatar were present.
The milestone was marked with a cutting of a cake and the Bank’s management also felicitated remittance partners by presenting plaques as a gesture of appreciation.
Commercial Bank’s Chief Operating Officer S. Prabagar said: “When the Bank embarked on its remittance operations in Qatar, we introduced a web-based real time solution for sending money to Sri Lanka.We were always cognisant of the fact that the needs and aspirations of migrant workers go far beyond simply sending money home.
“Therefore, continuous improvement of our services portfolio focusing on remitters and beneficiaries was a priority. Over the past 20 years, Qatar has emerged as a key market for worker remittances, with approximately 120,000 Sri Lankan expatriates. Today, we are proud to have expanded our operations in Qatar with over 15 business partners, and our presence here is a testament to our successful two-decade journey,” he said.
Commercial Bank entered the Qatar market in 2003 with its very own product ‘e-Exchange’ which was a real-time, web-based money transfer solution that was rebranded as ComBank RemitPlus in 2021.