• Financial Capital
• Institutional Capital

Value Creation and Internal Capital Formation

INSTITUTIONAL CAPITAL

Organisational Knowledge

The Bank recognises the value of sharing knowledge across the organisation, as it enables staff to solve problems more effectively, evolve to meet changing business requirements, and survive disruptive changes.

Management and dissemination of knowledge is enabled through provision of focused and customised training programmes relevant to employees job scope. These include knowledge sharing programmes by experts and technical and soft skill modules formulated with inputs obtained from cross-functional representatives. The Bank also operates an e-learning platform consisting of a range of technical and soft skills learning materials which is also a very useful tool to retain and disseminate knowledge. An intranet is also available to transmit corporate information to staff.

Systems, Processes and ICT

Continuing its digital journey in 2017, the Bank focused on providing multiple product options to various customer segments while enhancing the customer experience via digital channels.

Some of the key highlights in 2017;

• Supporting its corporate customer base, the Bank launched its own Payment and Cash Management (PCM) system. The system enables corporate customers to have complete control over their cash flows, including payments, collections, and liquidity management. Corporate customers can simplify their payment and collection processes by bringing their suppliers and customers into the PCM system.
• The Bank launched its own Card Management system with connectivity to the VISA network. The system increases the Bank’s capacity to offer a full spectrum of services to its Credit and Debit card base.
• The Bank joined the Common Electronic Fund Transfer (CEFT) system, enabling online inter bank transfers over the counter and through online banking platforms.
• The Bank implemented an Enterprise Alert Platform, integrating all transaction-based systems and enabling the Bank to alert transaction parties of ongoing transactions, providing customers with virtually real-time notifications via SMS and email.
• As part of its commitment to the Green Bank Initiative and to enhancing customer experience, the Bank implemented an Electronic Statement System. Electronic statements enable the Bank to provide increased value addition to customers through detailed analysis of their spending and income patterns. Customers are offered the option of opting for a consolidated electronic statement instead of paper statements at no cost. The Bank expects to cut down approximately 50% of the paper used for printing statements.
• The Bank introduced a mobile app, “Premier Go”, aimed at strengthening the relationship between the Bank and its premier customers. Besides providing account related information, premier customers can also directly communicate with their dedicated relationship managers over video via the app.
• The Bank’s planning and budgeting system was completely migrated to Oracle Cloud, using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, as part of its Cloud adoption strategy.
• New account opening was automated on a workflow platform, enhancing staff productivity and minimising processing lead times. The system is anticipated to reduce processing time by over 90%, and more process automation is planned for 2018.
• A new mobile app “Sales Talk” was introduced to empower the Bank’s sales team, providing them with up-to-date information accessible from anywhere.

Corporate Culture and Values

The Bank is focused on building and nurturing a culture of appreciation, accountability and empowerment within an environment that promotes a relaxed atmosphere and encourages creativity and open communication.

Since the introduction of the Bank’s revamped values in late 2015, a number of initiatives have been introduced to keep its core value system at the forefront of the minds of employees. Those who demonstrate behaviour reflective of the Bank’s core values are recognised and rewarded and become a positive example to be emulated. In the latter part of 2017, the Bank introduced a new regional team challenge spanning six months which assigns a value for each region to champion and drive across the Bank. This encourages ownership as well as greater understanding and appreciation of these values.

DFCC Bank’s ethos ensures that employees are encouraged to voice their opinions, views, concerns, and foster two-way communication. To this extent, the Bank held open days from time to time with the Chairman and CEO, providing staff with the opportunity to have one-on-one interactions with them. The “Reach Out” programme for female staff and the Grievance Committee further enable employees to raise concerns while the ongoing HR business partner programme is targeted towards enabling improved access to HR services. Progress and news on the Bank events are disseminated across the network in a weekly newsletter, and community boards have been introduced at selected offices which are regularly updated to keep employees abreast of the latest developments at the Bank.

DFCC Bank strongly believes that a workplace that proactively and frequently appreciates and recognises its employees is an environment that inspires employees to continuously strive to achieve more. The Bank has a number of schemes in place to recognise and appreciate employee contributions, such as the quarterly “Rewarding Excellence” scheme, where employees who go the extra mile are rewarded and recognised for their contribution. Through the staff appreciation scheme, departments and branches are provided an annual allowance for team celebrations. The Annual Awards Night is another event held to acknowledge and reward exceptional contribution by employees. In an effort to ensure improved team bonding, a host of different events are organised throughout the year which provide employees with avenues to interact socially while also engaging in activities of interest to them. Health and wellness continues to be a priority with many varied programmes offered throughout the year as well as employees being provided access to concessional gym and club memberships.

Brand Equity

DFCC Bank has a proud legacy extending over 60 years in Sri Lanka as the premier development financial institution in the country. The Bank is now a fully-fledged commercial bank. Providing a diverse range of financial solutions and products aimed at a range of customer segments, from retail and large corporates to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs); DFCC Bank enables its customers to “Keep Growing”.

The Bank is renowned for having nurtured entrepreneurs and start-up enterprises across all economic sectors since its inception in 1955. It continues to strengthen the relationships it has built with customers for decades, and work towards attracting newer customer segments by offering a range of financial solutions that suit their evolving needs.

Improving brand and product awareness in 2017;

• The Bank maintained its brand presence throughout the year, engaging in mass media communication, market activations, and revamping the appearance of bank branches. This resulted in attracting more customers to DFCC. The Bank continued to engage with customers through expanding the branch footprint and presence in multiple locations across the country.
• Raising awareness of the Bank’s consumer banking and SME products and services was done through various means, including social and digital marketing, and increased brand visibility and product campaigns.
• The Bank built-up its brand association with sports through a tie-up with the Papare.com and sponsorships of sporting events. The Bank sponsored the Inter School Golf Tournament as the title sponsor, and the Gajaba Super Cross 2017 as the official banking partner. Additionally, the Bank also sponsored the Colombo International Tea Convention as the strategic partner.
• The Bank also initiated a special series of workshops, “Vardhana Sahaya Hamuwa”, to nurture the growth of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Sri Lanka. The primary focus of these programmes was to increase the financial literacy and financial management abilities of the MSME sector, in addition to promoting the Bank’s financial services and products.

The Bank continues to strive to enhance its position among the top 25 brands in Sri Lanka. To maintain its brand equity, the Bank continuously monitors its brand performance. For instance, the Bank regularly carries out customer research to measure and enhance the quality of customer service across its branch network. The transformation to a fully-fledged commercial bank exposes the brand to an expanded customer base that demands increasingly customised solutions. In addition to staying relevant with the evolving needs of the identified customer segments, the Bank maintains a strong focus on sustainable growth of all its stakeholders, true to its positioning: Keep Growing.

Business Ethics and Integrity

The Corporate Governance Report in the chapter on Stewardship discusses the governing mechanisms discusses the governing mechanisms DFCC Bank has established to uphold its business to the highest levels of ethics and integrity.

Anti-corruption

The Bank’s Code of Conduct sets out detailed provisions in anti-corruption. These provisions have been thoroughly detailed to all Bank employees, and are supplemented through necessary updates.

DFCC Bank is a responsible corporate citizen, and ensures sustainability through maintaining its transparent and unblemished track record of business.

Compliance

DFCC Bank understands the importance of satisfying all laws, rules, and regulations that are imposed upon it as a financial services intermediary. The Bank’s policies and procedures extend beyond default legal and regulatory requirements to incorporate wider benchmarks of integrity and ethical conduct. Measures taken to mitigate all compliance-related risks are laid out in detail under Operational Risk on Integrated Risk Management in the chapter on Stewardship of this Annual Report.

The Bank continues to maintain a faultless record, and has not been subject to any fines or actions implemented by regulators for the period under review for any instances of non-compliance. The Bank also continued to invest resources in training its personnel across all sectors in areas of regulatory compliance.