Sri Lanka’s importers and exporters have been provided with a sophisticated new digital platform for all their trade finance requirements by the Commercial Bank of Ceylon, the single largest private sector facilitator of the country’s international trade via a gamut of trade-related services.
‘ComBank TradeLink’ is a seamless, intuitive, user-friendly and future-ready digital front-end that will provide end-end solutions covering the entire customer journey, simplifying and accelerating trade finance transactions and promoting compliance, the Bank said.
Importers using ComBank TradeLink will have 24×7 real-time digital access to products such as Import Letters of Credit, Import Collection Documents, Shipping Guarantees and Advance Documents, Open Account Payments, Advance Payments and Letters of Guarantee.
Exporters can access Export Letters of Credit and Export Collection Documents via this online resource, expediting their export-related transactions and enhancing efficiency.
Among the many benefits offered by ComBank TradeLink are enhanced visibility with real-time status updates and notifications; personalised templates for quicker processing, minimising manual efforts; secure, multi-level authorisation workflows; improved document management with the ability to upload and view documents related to trade transactions; and a dashboard exclusive to each user.
The platform will support businesses from all sectors and of varying sizes and capacities, and provide them with another communication path to the Bank.
“From its very inception, Commercial Bank has been a leading player in the trade finance sphere and has historically been one of the country’s biggest facilitators of imports and exports,” Commercial Bank Managing Director/ CEO Mr Sanath Manatunge said. “This legacy of commitment to trade finance facilitation continues with this latest initiative, which will take trade finance to the digital realm with a comprehensive suite of online services that will expand and evolve with local and global changes in this sphere.”
He said ComBank Trade Link is the logical progression from the ComBank Trade Club launched by the bank two years ago. The Trade Club was conceptualised as the premier association of the import and export clientele of Commercial Bank. Its role is to widen the bank’s engagement with these customers to stimulate the growth of their businesses.
Commercial Bank is the first Sri Lankan bank to be listed among the Top 1000 Banks of the World and has the highest market capitalisation in the Banking Sector in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The Bank is the largest private sector lender, the largest lender to the SME sector, is a leader in digital innovation and is Sri Lanka’s first 100% carbon-neutral bank. Commercial Bank operates a strategically located network of branches and automated machines island-wide, and has the widest international footprint among Sri Lankan banks, with 20 outlets in Bangladesh, a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake in the Maldives, and a Microfinance company in Myanmar. The Bank’s fully-owned subsidiary CBC Finance Ltd., also delivers a range of financial services via its own branch network.
Photo caption:
Commercial Bank Managing Director/CEO Mr Sanath Manatunge at the launch of ComBank TradeLink.
