Signing ceremony between People’s Bank and Silverlake System
to implement the Silverlake Integrated Banking System
for an additional 127 branches.

Recently, People’s Bank was awarded “Best Core Banking Implementation and Deployment in South-Asia and Middle East” by Silverlake and IBM at the Banking Technology Summit held in Perth, Australia.

Staying true to its origins, People’s Bank has continued to be a leader in the provision of Financial Services catering to the people of the country.

5 years ago, in line with a new strategy to be more competitive and extend its services to the people, the bank chose to implement the Silverlake Integrated Banking System on the IBM System I platform.

Speaking at the ceremony held in view of the signing of the agreement which was held today at the People’s Bank head office, Chee Chin Leong, President of Silverlake System said, “This is indeed a very significant step People’s Bank is taking in expanding its network systems to all branches. So far both we and the bank have proven to be successful in what has been implemented. Comparatively, the service levels of People’s Bank has become more dynamic, efficient and also profitable as opposed to where it was prior to the systems being implemented. We are proud to be a part of this effort to bring People’s Bank on par with some of the best banks in the world. We are very happy about the consolidation.”

From deposit schemes designed especially for new born infants to retirement schemes for senior citizens, lending for agriculture, fisheries and production to more consumption based individual/personal lending, this bank has, with this implementation, successfully achieved its objective, significantly increasing its revenue and profits despite intense competition within the financial services sector.

People’s Bank has more than 650 branches and service centers dedicated to servicing the needs of the people. With the new Silverlake Integrated Banking System, the bank has been able to effectively expand its range of products and services, delivering in a more customer friendly and productive manner. People’s Bank is signing up to automate an additional  127 branches on the Silverlake System and consolidating their commitment to provide better products and services to their customers.

P. V. Pathirana, General Manager/CEO of People’s Bank stated, “for the last 48 years the People’s Bank branch network has been one of our key strengths which has helped us to enhance our reach and thereby increase our customer base. Therefore we have identified the need for online banking which ensures anytime-anywhere banking for the people of Sri Lanka. Our partnership with Silverlake which started in December 2004 has so far seen 200 branches and 239 service centres being converted in order to bring the entire network under one platform. Today we signed for another 127 branches and 90 service centres through which we can confidently say that our entire network will be geared to cater to our customers with and efficient service as it will minimize waiting time and manual work etc. Further, by adding value to the existing processes, we will now be able to allocate more staff into the field, thereby enabling them to have one-on-one interactions with the customers in order to provide real online solutions at their doorstep.”

“Bankers should be in a position to predict the future, in relation to the direction of the industry and gear up to meet those changes in a timely manner. With the rapid advancement in technology, the brick and mortar bank will no longer exist. Paperless, scriptless and cashless banking will be the need of the future, and wealth management is likely to replace the normal banking functions. In this competitive environment, organizations need to “CHANGE”, if not they will be left behind”, stated Mr. P.V. Pathirana, CEO/General Manager of Peoples Bank