DFCC urges structural changes to industry to overcome Corona blues
Mr. Lakshman Silva
DFCC Bank was tested in these unprecedented times of the pandemic and has come out on top.
With 65 years of solid banking behind it, DFCC’s loyal customers would not have it any other way, Lakshman Silva, CEO DFCC said, sitting down for an interview with the Business Times on Wednesday.
The ‘bad times’ has been going on for too long – since 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. The banks started providing moratoriums for the tourism sector in April 2019. By January 1 this year, the banks had to extend the relief measures to all sectors on account of the Easter Sunday attacks.
Just as the new loans were being processed, COVID-19 hit the country.
Then on March 25, the moratorium was extended to interest portion till September.
Explaining the sequence of these events, Mr. Silva pointed out that the banks had to re-process the loans according to the new initiatives announced by the authorities.
The Central Bank (CB) issued six circulars to banks since January this year.
“This impacted the time spent by bankers on processing loans. Our banking systems are geared to handle only certain things. So we had many manual interventions on processing when the new measures were announced. More than 90 per cent of our time was spent on ratifications and re-processing of moratoriums.”
DFCC (as with other banks) is trying to rehabilitate and restructure the bad loans, according to Mr. Silva. He stressed that certain structural changes need to be done to the industry such as rationalising accounting standards to trounce the pandemic-related crisis.
The non-performing loans ratio is hovering around 5 per cent. Mr. Silva said that this ratio would either rise or will be at the same levels, going forward.
He said the bankers have identified certain sectors’ return to normalcy.”Pharmaceuticals for an example, is that sector which was not all that impacted. This is a sector that we are assisting. Similarly IT firms, virtual educational methods and food network distribution channels along with food processing are sectors that we have identified to support.”
As a part of the bank’s 65th anniversary celebrations, DFCC has declared the month of October as the bank’s anniversary month and has planned a number of activities to engage with varied stakeholders.
DFCC will open the state of the Pinnacle Centre at its new location at No.80 Horton Place, Colombo 7 exclusively for the Pinnacle clientele to facilitate to carry out banking transactions speedily, conveniently and in complete confidentiality. It also has customer meeting spaces, a lounge and an entertainment area as well to make their visits more productive and pleasant.
In line with the bank’s sustainability strategy of promoting “Cycling” for a healthy work-life balance, the Pinnacle centre was designed to accommodate cycling where it is also equipped with changing rooms for customers who want to cycle to this location, Mr. Silva said.
DFCC,together with Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC, formed a partnership to provide educational support to over 100 youth who are from low income families with educational scholarships, so as to enable them to continue their education without any interruption.