he Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently felicitated 68 employees who had completed 25 years of service with the Bank in 2012.

Many of the employees felicitated had joined the Bank as school leavers in 1987 and advanced to key positions as managers, senior managers and chief managers, the Bank said.

The Bank’s Long Service Awards ceremony has been conducted annually for more than a decade, recognising employee loyalty and commitment. Each employee receives a plaque and a Gold coin in recognition of his or her service to the Bank.

Commercial Bank Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody and members of the Board of Directors and representatives of corporate management graced the occasion in a demonstration of its importance to the institution. The Chairman and the Managing Director presented the awards at the gala event at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo.

Speaking at the event, Weerakkody recalled how the Bank was in 1987, when these employees joined it and traced its growth over the last 25 years, and pointed out that the employees too have grown along with the Bank.

In his address, Ravi Dias - Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer, elaborated on the commitment of the staff, thanked their spouses for their support, and commended the long years of service of the 68 employees felicitated.

The largest private bank in Sri Lanka, Commercial Bank is the only Sri Lankan Bank to be listed two years consecutively in the world’s Top 1000 Banks. The Bank operates a network of 224 service points in Sri Lanka and a network of 541 ATMs, the single largest ATM network operated by a bank in the island. It also operates 17 service points in Bangladesh. The Bank has been adjudged ‘Best Bank in Sri Lanka’ for 14 consecutive years by ‘Global Finance’ Magazine, and has won multiple awards as the country’s best bank from ‘The Banker,’ ‘FinanceAsia,’ ‘Euromoney’ and ‘Trade Finance’ magazines.