Nations Trust Bank’s Sheahan Daniel, Executive Vice President – Consumer Banking and Arosha Liyanaarachchi, Executive Vice President – Commercial Banking, share insights into Nations Direct, the bank’s integrated digital banking platform, and how it is revolutionizing consumer experiences and empowering small and medium enterprises to thrive amidst economic challenges.

How is Nations Direct influencing the banking transformation in Sri Lanka?

At Nations Trust Bank, we recognized the importance of digital channels early on and invested heavily in our digital capabilities. In 2022, we reached a watershed moment in our digital journey with the launch of a single, integrated digital banking platform called Nations Direct. This platform offers a simple, secure and seamless omnichannel banking experience that incorporates all our digital banking products, including online banking, banking apps, enterprise solutions and a range of other digital services.

Our investment in digital channels has allowed us to better serve our customers and provide them with a convenient and efficient banking experience. We believe that the focus towards digital channels in banking will be a long-term trend, and we are committed to continuous innovation and investment towards our digital capabilities to meet the evolving needs of our customers.

The banking industry has undergone a substantial transformation over the past decade, with digital transformation being one of the most significant areas of change. The pandemic has been a poignant reminder of this, as we saw a significant increase in retail transactions, with many people opting to stay at home and manage their banking digitally. As a result, both customers and banks benefited greatly from the convenience and security of digital channels, and we anticipate that this trend will continue to evolve in the future.

How is Nations Trust Bank reimagining banking experiences for consumers with Nations Direct?

In the consumer space, we always prioritize the customer in everything we do. Our products and service propositions have evolved based on the customer requirements and feedback that we have received over time. This approach has enabled us to evolve and will continue to be our guiding principle in the future.

Today’s customers have busy schedules and prefer to conduct their transactions at their convenience, without having to visit a branch. As a bank, we believe that we need to provide convenient solutions to meet our customers’ demands. To achieve this, we have started bringing the branch to the customer’s doorstep through our digital channels, and we are pleased to receive positive feedback from our customers on the convenience and accessibility of our channels.

We take the customer experience very seriously and strive to provide a seamless banking experience. We have a robust complaint management system in place that ensures feedback is evaluated at a high level, enabling us to continuously improve our services. Our digital apps are designed to deliver convenience and a pleasant transactional experience for our customers. We also strategically place our off-site ATMs in locations where our customer pools are located, providing them with easy access and convenience during transactions. Customer experience is at the heart of everything we do as a bank, and we take pride in ensuring our customers have a positive experience every time they interact with Nations Trust Bank.

Consider your commercial banking portfolio: how is Nations Trust Bank deploying digital technology to help its clients and make a difference amidst the unfolding economic crisis?

In the realm of commercial banking, we serve emerging business enterprises. The contribution from this segment of businesses accounts for 50% of the country’s GDP and 70% of employment, making it a critical economic franchise. As a leading digitally savvy bank, our primary goal is to prepare our business clients that fall in this category for the future, recognizing that client acquisition is not just a transaction but a long-term relationship.

To this end, we have developed Nation Direct Enterprises, a digital banking solution that will bring numerous efficiencies to the sector and ensure long-term sustainability, evolving with market dynamism. It offers a range of products and services, including EPF, ETF, taxes and Custom payments, accessible on any smart device. This application creates many organizational efficiencies, allowing businesses to become lean and mean, eliminate hidden costs and increase cost competitiveness while enabling data-driven decision-making.

In addition to offering plain vanilla lending products, our advisory teams reach out to clients and assist them in realizing end-to-end transactions, improving the quality of their products and making them more competitive. This approach allows businesses to build resilience to economic shocks and unlocks opportunities to grow to the next level and become more productive and globally competitive.

During recent business disruptions, our clients were able to thrive by conducting their transactions through digital channels, showcasing the value of our digital banking solution. Nations Direct Enterprises aims to provide efficiencies that help clients become more productive in the future, ensuring their success as a critical economic franchise in the country’s economy.