A long tradition of 100 years

The Eastern Bank Ltd. (EBL) opened a branch in Chatham Street.

The share capital of Eastern Bank was acquired by the Chartered Bank.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon Ltd. was incorporated with Eastern Bank holding 40% of its equity.

The business of the Eastern Bank was taken over by the Chartered Bank.

First Commercial Bank Branch was opened at Galewela.

The Galle, Jaffna and Kandy branches of the Mercantile Bank Ltd. were acquired by Commercial Bank.

The Foreign Currency Banking Unit (FCBU) was formed.

Commercial Development Company Ltd. (CDC) was incorporated to construct a Headquarters for the Bank with a 40% equity participation.

Opening of the Commercial Development Company New Building.

The Headquarters of the Bank was shifted to ‘Commercial House’, No. 21, Bristol Street (now known as Sir Razik Fareed Mawatha), Colombo 01.

Eastern Bank Ltd. changed its name to Standard Chartered (UK) Holdings Ltd.

An associate company, Commercial Leasing Company Ltd. was formed.

Introduced ATM facilities to its customers.

Implemented the Core Banking Software - International Comprehensive Banking System (ICBS).

Shareholding in Commercial Development Company Ltd. increased to 94.55% through a share swap.

Standard Chartered Bank sold its 40% stake in the Bank.

Opening of Commercial Bank's 50th Branch in Dambulla.

365-day branch at Colombo 07 was opened. All branches except Jaffna were linked to the ICBS

Won the Best Bank in Sri Lanka award.

Banking and super marketing were combined by opening the first ‘MiniCom’.

Online Banking was launched.

Opened the 100th branch at Kaduruwela and the Gold Trading Unit at the Foreign Branch.

The operations of Credit Agricole Indosuez in Bangladesh was taken over.

Commercial Bank Social Responsibility Trust was set up.

US $ 65 Mn two-year syndicated loan was offered with an option to extend for a further year by the lender to the first time for a non-sovereign corporate in the country.

Introduced the first mobile ATM in the country.

Raised US $ 10 Mn. by issuing a five-year bond, the first of its kind by an indigenous bank in Sri Lanka.

Opened 150th branch at Mahiyanganaya.

Sold off its 30% stake in the equity of Commercial Leasing Company PLC.

Became the first Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the ‘Top 1000 Banks in the World’

Became the first and only Bank in Sri Lanka to be CMMi certified.

Installed its 400th ATM at the Ruwanwella branch adding 50 ATMs during the year

Received 12th ‘Best Bank’ Award from Global Finance.

Installation of 500th ATM at the Maradana Railway Station.

Became the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the ‘Top 1000 Banks in the World’ for the 2nd time.

Won Euromoney’s Best Bank award.

Became the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the ‘Top 1000 Banks in the World’ for the 3rd time and for the 2nd consecutive year.

Donated landmark of 50th IT Lab to President’s College Sri Jayawardenapura, Kotte.

Raised US $ 65 Mn., from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Became the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the ‘Top 1000 Banks in the World’ for the 4th time and for the third consecutive year.

Raised US $ 75 million from the IFC as a ten year Subordinated Term Debt that qualifies for Tier II Capital.

Adjudged as the ‘Best Local Trade Bank in Sri Lanka’ by ‘Trade Finance (UK)’ for 4th time since Trade Finance began presenting this award since 2009.

Bank installed its 600th ATM at the Gold Centre branch.

Bank acquired the ownership of Indra Finance Ltd.

Adjudged ‘The Strongest Bank in Sri Lanka in 2014’ by The Asian Banker, a leading provider of strategic intelligence on the financial services industry.

Adjudged as Sri Lanka’s ‘Best Bank’ for the 16th consecutive year by one of the world’s most respected financial publications, ‘Global Finance (USA)’.

Became the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the ‘Top 1000 Banks in the World’ for the 5th time and for the fourth consecutive year.

Adjudged as Sri Lanka’s ‘Bank of the Year’ by the respected UK-based ‘The Banker’ Magazine.

Adjudged Runner-Up at Best Corporate Citizen awards.

240th branch Opened in Nochchiyagama.

Launched paperless Green Banking facility.

Begun Myanmar operations with opening of Yangon office.

Received FinanceAsia Best Bank Country Award.

Received Euromoney’s Best Bank in Sri Lanka award.

Sri Lanka’s first Remittance Card has been launched by the Bank to introduce a new dimension in convenience to the process of transferring funds from overseas to local beneficiaries.

Commercial Bank of Maldives, a subsidiary of Commercial Bank of Ceylon and a joint venture with Tree Top Investments Maldives, formally inaugurated its banking operations in the Maldives.

Commercial Bank of Maldives opened its second branch in Hulhumale.

The second fully-owned subsidiary of CBC outside Sri Lanka, CBC Myanmar Microfinance Company Limited was opened in Nay Pyi Taw.

Launched the country’s first fully-automated cheque deposit machine at City Office Branch in York Street Colombo.

Reached 850 ATMs in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Launched UnionPay cards by a bank in Sri Lanka for the first time, making Sri Lanka the 51st country in the world to issue UnionPay cards.

ComBank received 53 international and local awards in 2019 including the award for the ‘Bank of the Year’ 2019 in Sri Lanka from The Banker Magazine of the UK and the Award for the Best Bank in Sri Lanka - 2019 from the USA based Global Finance magazine.

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary.

Became Sri Lanka’s first carbon-neutral bank

UK’s CDC Group committed USD 50Mn to bolster SME lending and climate projects

Became the first private sector bank to achieve the feat of Loan book surpassing Rs.1 Tn, joining Assets and Deposits

Became the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked in the ‘Top 1000 World Banks’, for the 11th consecutive year

Received Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award