HNB PLC was again declared the Best SME Bank in Sri Lanka at the Asiamoney Awards 2023.
HNB DGM, Retail Banking Group, Sanjay Wijemanne said, “SMEs are essential to the Sri Lankan economy, generating 52% of GDP, and creating livelihoods for more than 45% of Sri Lanka’s entire workforce. At every step of its development, HNB has actively worked to and empowering grassroots enterprises, and we have supported many to grow into fully fledged corporates of national and even global significance.»
“In the face of persistent economic volatility, our work in developing and strengthening the SME sector takes on even greater importance. We are grateful to Asiamoneyfor recognising our efforts, and most importantly, to all of our teams on the ground who continue to take on the challenge of supporting SMEs to navigate this challenging time, and plant the seeds for economic revival,” he said.
The roots of its commitment to partnering grassroot enterprises goes back all the way to the bank’s inception in Sri Lanka’s hill country in 1888.
HNB Deputy General Manager, SME and Micro Finance, Rajive Dissanayake said, “The advances we are making in digital banking, combined with the deep personal relationships that we have cultivated with SMEs over generations has the potential to create an entirely new paradigm in SME development.
During the Covid pandemic, this included facilitation of access to debt moratoriums and concessionary working capital loans, with emphasis on SMEs with proven capability to perform. HNB also forged partnerships with a variety of stakeholders to provide SMEs with access to e-commerce and digital payment solutions, export facilitation, training and skills development, as well as access to funding via international credit facilities.
«HNB continued to partner with donor agencies and DFIs in attracting low cost funding to support SMEs and this included a collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the SMELoC Emergency Response Scheme.
Through this, the bank supported over 650 MSME customers with working capital and Capex facilities.»
“Increasingly we have shifted our focus towards driving systemic solutions to customers in distress, back on the road to recovery.
The next paradigm in financial inclusion will be in connecting SMEs to these new digital capabilities and providing them the skills and support to build resilience and competitively differentiate themselves to capture new markets locally and globally,” Dissanayake said.