The 56th Annual Report of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC reflects our enduring legacy of over a century, alongside our continuous evolution amidst an ever-changing financial landscape. Beyond capturing key financial and operational achievements, this year’s Report emphasises our steadfast commitment to innovation, sustainability, and stakeholder-focused value creation. Transparency, accountability, governance, and sustainability remain the core pillars driving our long-term resilience and success.

In line with global best practices, the Report integrates both financial and non-financial performance to illustrate how the Bank is fulfilling its purpose, driving strategic priorities, and assessing progress towards financial and non-financial objectives. It presents material information that enables providers of capital to evaluate the opportunities, risks, and relationships impacting the Bank’s ability to create and preserve value. It also outlines the governance framework and the actions taken to safeguard against value erosion.

Demonstrating our role in fostering economic growth and social well-being, the Report showcases not only the accomplishments of 2024 but also our forward-looking strategies designed to navigate future challenges and capitalise on emerging opportunities. Targeted primarily at providers of financial capital, this Report is also intended to benefit a wider stakeholder audience by offering valuable insights into how the Bank generates and sustains value across the short, medium, and long term.

Our reporting journey

In this Report, we strive to present a holistic narrative of our journey throughout 2024, highlighting key milestones, challenges overcome, strategies adopted and trade-offs made to create, preserve and minimise erosion of value – collectively referred to as value creation – over the short, medium and long term.

Since 2013, the Bank has diligently adhered to the <IR> Framework in presenting its annual reports. Over the years, this framework has enabled the Bank to offer a comprehensive, transparent and forward-looking narrative of its financial and non-financial performance in accordance with the Guiding Principles and the Content Elements of the Framework. This 56th Annual Report, comprising the Integrated Report and the Financial Statements, covers the 12-month period from January 01 to December 31, 2024, and is consistent with the Bank’s usual annual reporting cycle for financial and sustainability reporting. This follows our most recent Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2023, for which comparative figures are given, where applicable. This Report reflects our steadfast commitment to value creation for all stakeholders, balancing economic, environmental and social priorities.

The Annual Report has been produced with a focus on six key qualitative criteria as given below to ensure a high standard of disclosure. It maintains completeness by covering both direct and indirect material impacts, including those influenced through stakeholder engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Clarity is achieved by blending text with visual elements to enhance readability and comprehension. To provide a fair and unbiased account, the Report strives for balance in presenting material information. Ensuring credibility and reliability, the financial and sustainability data has been independently vetted by Messrs KPMG. Additionally, accuracy and consistency are upheld through robust internal controls that guarantee the traceability and verifiability of information. The Report also enhances comparability by including performance data for both the current and the previous periods, along with relevant industry benchmarks.

Materiality

The principle of materiality guides the content of this Integrated Report by identifying key issues, opportunities, and risks that materially affect our capitals and our ability to create, protect, and sustain value over the short, medium, and long term. The identification of material matters is based on input from business and service units as well as analysis of the external environment through a double materiality lens – assessing both the impact of our business on the economy, society, and environment, and vice versa – and also the insights gathered through our stakeholder engagement process. These material matters, detailed on pages 66 to 67, shape our strategy, refine the risk management framework, and drive the ongoing evolution of our business model, influencing short, medium, and long-term goals.

We prioritise matters with the greatest relevance to earnings sustainability and stakeholder value creation, ensuring they are reviewed and validated through our strategic planning process. This approach integrates financial materiality – how external factors influence the Bank – and impact materiality – how the Bank affects external factors – into our decision-making processes, fostering a resilient, future-ready and sustainable business model.

Stakeholder engagement

The Bank views its stakeholders as integral partners in its journey of value creation. Engaging with stakeholders through structured dialogue as detailed on pages 62 to 65 enables the Bank to gain critical insights into their expectations, concerns and emerging priorities. This ongoing engagement shapes not only the Bank’s strategic direction but also its approach to transparent reporting, ensuring that the Bank remains responsive to the evolving needs of its key stakeholders, namely, customers, employees, investors, regulators and the broader community.

By fostering inclusivity and mutual trust, the Bank’s stakeholder engagement framework allows it to address material issues proactively, strengthen long-term relationships and ensure that its actions deliver sustainable value across the six capitals (refer page 62).

A unified strategy for sustainable growth

The Bank’s strategic direction is shaped by a balanced pursuit of financial excellence and responsible business practices, whereby financial goals are integrated with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) imperatives. We recognise that long-term value creation is inherently linked to the well-being of the environment, the society and our stakeholders. By embedding ESG imperatives into our core strategy, we ensure that our growth ambitions are aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This unified approach not only strengthens our financial performance but also enhances our ability to effectively address emerging risks and seize opportunities in an evolving economic landscape.

This Report depicts how we deliver shared value to all stakeholders by prioritising responsible financing, inclusive banking, operational efficiency and ethical governance, guided by this holistic strategy while fostering economic, environmental and social resilience across our footprint.

Please refer page 72 for the Bank’s Sustainability Framework to understand how it helps the Bank achieve its underlying Purpose.

These pillars, in turn, contribute to value creation across the six interconnected capitals.

We have aligned our sustainability journey with global standards, including the SDGs, contributing to eight key goals most relevant to our operations. This integrated approach enables us to balance our commercial objectives with a broader commitment to societal well-being and environmental stewardship, with a particular focus on quality education, clean energy, gender equality, and responsible consumption, and climate action.

Balancing growth with sustainability

As a responsible financial institution, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC recognises the critical role it plays in fostering sustainable development while delivering long-term value to its stakeholders. We understand that balancing economic growth with environmental stewardship and social responsibility is essential to ensure a sustainable future. Guided by a robust sustainability framework, we continue to take measures in order to mitigate the social, environmental and climate-related risks associated with our operations and lending activities, adhering to the precautionary principle to proactively identify and minimise potential adverse impacts.

Integrated thinking for sustainable value creation

Since adopting integrated reporting, we have continually evolved to embed integrated thinking across all facets of our operations. This year’s Report continues to demonstrate how integrated thinking drives our ability to adapt, innovate and deliver sustained value across our stakeholder ecosystem. This mindset has allowed us to:

• Embed ESG principles within our core operations;
• Harmonise diverse functions across the Bank to improve collaboration and streamline decision-making, while going beyond economic objectives to align with societal and environmental goals;
• Align our business model with emerging trends and disruptive forces, ensuring long-term relevance and resilience; and
• Enhance operational agility through the implementation of unified service standards and integrated digital platforms.

By fostering a culture of integrated thinking, we have been able to better anticipate risks, allocate resources more effectively and deliver superior value to all stakeholders.

Defining report boundary

The Financial Statements present the consolidated performance of the Group, encompassing the Bank and its six subsidiaries – Commercial Development Company PLC, CBC Tech Solutions Limited, CBC Finance Ltd., Commercial Insurance Brokers (Pvt) Ltd., Commercial Bank of Maldives Private Limited and CBC Myanmar Microfinance Company Limited -along with the associate company, Equity Investments Lanka Ltd. (Refer to the Consolidated Financial Statements on pages 285 to 458).

Unless otherwise indicated, the Bank’s social and environmental impacts, detailed in the Management Discussion and Analysis on pages 83 to 151, pertain to its operations in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. These two markets represent the core of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, the parent entity, contributing over 97% of the Group’s total revenue, loans and advances, deposits and assets.

During the reporting period, there were no significant changes in the Bank’s ownership, structure, or reporting boundaries. Further, there were no changes in reporting or restatements to the previously reported financial, social or environmental information.

Crafted with clarity

This Report has been prepared by using concepts, principles and guidelines prescribed in:

Accordingly, the report provides a balanced representation of the Bank’s ability to create and sustain value over the short, medium and long term. It encompasses both historical performance and forward-looking insights to meet the expectations of financial capital providers and other key stakeholders.

Non-financial performance

Recognising the shift in the role of banks beyond profitability to include broader environmental and social contributions, the Bank continues to prioritise non-financial performance by integrating ESG considerations into its core strategy.

The Bank’s sustainability efforts are guided by globally recognised frameworks. These efforts encompass a wide range of initiatives aimed at reducing our environmental footprint, fostering financial inclusion, promoting employee well-being and contributing to community development.

During 2024, our focus on non-financial aspects resulted in:

Our non-financial disclosures not only reflect our commitment to creating long-term value but also serve as a foundation for responsible corporate behaviour. By providing both qualitative insights and quantitative metrics on our ESG performance, we aim to enhance stakeholder confidence and foster sustainable growth in the years to come.

Assuring integrity

Ensuring the accuracy, credibility and reliability of the information presented in this report is a top priority. To that end, we have:

• Engaged Messrs KPMG as independent assurance provider for both financial and sustainability information.
• Conducted rigorous internal reviews and verifications to maintain the integrity of our disclosures.

This Annual Report reflects the Bank’s unwavering commitment to transparency, stakeholder engagement and responsible business practices.

Guiding principles, regulations, codes and acts for financial and narrative reporting Figure – 05

Transcending mediums

In keeping with our commitment to a digital-first approach, this Annual Report is available in multiple formats to cater to the preferences of our diverse stakeholder base, following the Swiss Army Knife model:

• Comprehensive end-to-end online HTML version, supported with an AI-Powered Annual Report Assistant (Chatbot), accessible through both desktop and mobile devices.
• Downloadable PDF version hosted on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) website.
• Downloadable interactive PDF version hosted on the Bank’s website.

While we have printed a limited number of hard copies for select stakeholders, our primary focus is on digital accessibility to promote environmental sustainability. Readers can scan the QR codes provided in the Figure – 06 below of this report for quick access to the online versions. These efforts underscore our commitment to balancing conciseness, comprehensiveness, accessibility and environmental responsibility.