EBL adjudged ‘Bank of the Year 2023’ in Bangladesh

Eastern Bank PLC (EBL) has been awarded Bangladesh's 'Bank of the Year 2023'.

The accolade was conferred upon EBL by the renowned London-based international financial analysis and intelligence publication, The Banker, according to a media release. 

EBL has become the first local bank to receive the coveted award for the third time in 2020, 2021 and 2023. 

Eastern Bank was awarded for proving its mettle in the face of serious economic headwinds and market volatility during the past year, developing innovative products and services, modernising their infrastructure and delivering bottom line results.  The bank's focus on environmental, social and governance issues were also considered, the release says.

"We are honoured to receive the prestigious award which is a testament to our continuous efforts for achieving excellence. This award will inspire us to uphold our values that drive us day in, day out", said Ali Reza Iftekhar, managing director and CEO of Eastern Bank.

“Despite the challenges of rising default loans, shortfall of provision and capital, and the Covid-19-induced slowdown in Bangladesh’s financial services industry, we remained focused in our essential role in the society to help our customers save, invest, spend, borrow and protect their money with trust and confidence with a passion for service excellence. We are committed to being a partner on Bangladesh’s journey to a trillion-dollar economy by 2041.”

During the year, EBL doubled down on its digital offering with its Skybanking app. This has been expanded with the introduction of the bank’s Skypay e-commerce platform which, to date, has processed eight million transactions and holds an 81 per cent market share in online payments, according to the release. 

The bank is one of the first institutions to implement the Bangladesh central bank’s Interoperable Digital Transaction Platform, known as Binimoy which aims to create a cashless society in Bangladesh.

Eastern Bank PLC embarked on an infrastructure modernisation programme, launching Project Rupantor to upgrade its Oracle Flexcube UBS core banking system to version 14.3, which is a real-time online solution supporting multi-currency, multilingual, multi-entity, and multi-instance operations, the release adds. 

Earlier this year, EBL also received the Asiamoney Best Domestic Bank 2023 Awards gold trophy at the ICMAB Best Corporate Award 2022 and ICSB Gold Award for Corporate Governance.