People’s Bank celebrates its 61st Anniversary

People’s Bank, a pioneer in the Sri Lankan Banking and Financial Services sector, celebrates its 61st anniversary on July 01.

People’s Bank was established under Act No. 29 of 1961 with the aim of uplifting the co- operative business and rural banking systems. Vincent Subasinghe who was a pioneer in providing banking services to the co- operative sector was the first Chairman of People’s Bank.

In an era when banking services were limited to English speaking upper echelons of the society, it was the People’s Bank that changed that phenomenon by commencing to conduct its operations in Sinhala and Tamil. People’s Bank has introduced many firsts to the country such as agriculture loans, pawning, SME loans, women’s savings accounts and children’s savings accounts to name few.

Currently, People’s Bank is one of Sri Lanka’s largest financial institutions, boasting over Rs. three trillion in assets. Its network of 743 branches/ service centres is the country’s largest. The bank also possesses a network of over 268 Self Banking Units operating 24/ 7 all 365 days of the year.

While the bank initially focused on rural sectors and cooperative movements, since then People’s Bank has evolved to cater to a wide range of customer segments including Retail, High Net Worth, Micro & SME and Corporate.

The Banker Magazine named People’s Bank as one of the Top 1000 Banks in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Multiple business magazines such as World Finance, International Business Magazine, Global Business Review Magazine, Global Banking and Financial Review Magazine of UK, SAFA Awards, The Asian Digital Finance Forum and Awards also have awarded the bank on several occasions.

ICCSL, CIMA, and Daily FT newspaper included People’s Bank as one of the 10 best institutions in 2018, 2019,2020 and 2021 consecutively. People’s Bank is also the only State bank which was awarded the ISO/IEC 27001- 2013.