Commercial Bank’s Managing Director, CEO Sanath Manatunge (second from left) receives the award from the IFC’s FIG Portfolio Manager for South Asia Joon Young Park in the presence of Commercial Bank’s COO, S. Prabagar (extreme left) and IFC Country Manager for Sri Lanka Alejandro Alvarez de la Campa.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has reaffirmed Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s status as the South Asian financial institution to record the highest number of climate finance transactions in fiscal year 2022,awarding Sri Lanka’s benchmark private sector bank the prestigious Climate Assessment for Financial Institutions (CAFI) award in respect of the year.
The CAFI Award for climate reporting was conferred on Commercial Bank for successfully completing 314 climate finance transactions that met IFC’s climate eligibility criteria. The CAFI tool was used to assess climate eligibility and measure the climate impact of investments.
The only Sri Lankan bank to be accorded this accolade, Commercial Bank won the same award for fiscal year 2021 as well. Commercial Bank Managing Director/CEO Sanath Manatunge said: “This award positions Commercial Bank as a consistent leader in climate financing and attests to our commitment to sustainable financing which is at the heart of responsible banking. We will continue to promote sustainable economic growth in this region and address challenges posed by climate change through our green financing and climate financing initiatives.”
IFC’s Global Director - Financial Institution Group, Tomasz Telma said: “CAFI is a critical platform for reporting progress in the fight against climate change by linking finance to impact which ensures that the financial services industry can measure and quantify the climate impact of their investments using transparent and globally recognized methodologies.”
IFC awarded Commercial Bank after tracking data on climate financing submitted by its clients in the South Asia region using CAFI - a digital, web-based platform introduced by IFC to help banks and other financial institutions assess climate eligibility and to measure the development impact of the projects they finance. Commercial Bank uploads data on its green projects and green loans and leases granted to the CAFI platform as a practice.
Commercial Bank was a pioneer in adopting a social and environmental screening process in its lending activities and was the first bank in Sri Lanka to develop Green Financing taxonomy. It also revolutionized digital banking by introducing features in its ‘Flash’ mobile application to measure and offset customer impact on the environment.
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