Eastern Bank Limited: A symbol of stability

A game changer in Bangladesh’s fast growing financial sector, the success of EBL comes from its continuous effort to innovate products and services, its commitment to offer service excellence and passion for performance. With a sound asset quality, strong liquidity, adequate capital coverage and good corporate governance, EBL is a symbol of stability in Bangladesh Financial Market.

EBL has been known for its consistent and sustainable growth over the past 30 years and is being acclaimed for its customer-focus approach. EBL prefers working with the customer at a time and place where it is most convenient to them.

As a bank, we have a responsibility to our clients, investors, and communities. Earning and maintaining the trust of these stakeholders is at the heart of everything that we do. We believe in making banking simple and hassle-free for our customers. Which is why we have adopted the tagline: ‘Simple math.’

A partner in progress

Our purpose is to enable economic growth and societal progress by generating positive impact for our clients, our people, our investors and our communities. We continue to strike a balance between liquidity, profitability and solvency to post a positive growth even during the time of Pandemic-induced slowdown.

Our strong focus on asset quality has driven us to achieve consistent low non-performing loans of an average 3 percent over the years which is far below the industry average.  Our intrinsic and relative financial strength is largely a result of our solvency, which is indicated by our shock absorption capacity relative to risk and our liquidity.

A leader in financing in sectors like RMG, power, aviation, EBL has recently emerged as a leader in telecom financing and closed Bangladesh's landmark syndication deal of Taka 120 million in 2022. For our outstanding contribution in Sustainable Finance and overall Core Business strength, we were recognized by Central Bank of Bangladesh as a top bank in its Sustainability Ratings. EBL has been recently awarded some of the most prestigious projects in Bangladesh, including arranging a USD 200 million working capital financing for the Rampal power plant, a USD 2 billion joint venture between Bangladesh and India governments, as well as a record BDT 1,000 crore debt financing for the country's largest spinning mill Badsha Textiles Ltd.

EBL has become the bank of the banks by partnering with the world's largest money transfer company VISA to set up a unique solution of allowing member banks to maintain security in local currency rather than USD dominated standby letters of credit, thus saving valuable outflow of foreign currency from the country. It has sourced USD 50 million for Walton, the country's market leader in electrical goods, thus securing foreign currency from Europe. EBL has arranged the nation's first dematerialized corporate bond for TMSS, a capital market instrument to enable the empowerment of rural women in their economic and social development. In 2021 and 2022, EBL has also established itself as the dominant player in alternative financing.

As good corporate citizen, we put all our efforts to impacting lives positively. We take pride in financing Incepta Vaccine Limited to manufacture first human vaccine in Bangladesh.

Valuing our employees

To deliver sustained growth and in the process building a valuable brand is what we aspire to. To achieve this, we aim to attract and develop talented individuals. For us employees are our core brand. At EBL, we foster teamwork, partnership and inclusion, and promote a culture of trusting that each of us deliver to the expected standards. Employee engagement is also a key for EBL to idea generation. In 2015, an idea generation center for the employees called ‘The Nest’ was established with a tagline, ‘imagine without fear.’ This platform for incubating new ideas brings various departments to spend time at Nest to interact and help them to come out of their silos and think out of the box. The participants share and discuss the challenges of day-to-day operations and try to find a solution collectively. At the center, there is no set code of conduct, no dress code, and no sitting arrangement and once the participants are in, they are in for fun and creative engagements. A recently example of employee motivation is EBL Mission Bangladesh campaign. To mark the 30 anniversary of EBL, four employees of the bank set off from the corporate head office in city's Gulshan area to the 26-day EBL Mission Bangladesh campaign and covered 64 districts to spread the message of proper use of electricity, preserve energy, road safety, integrity and EBL service excellence guidelines.

Awards

We strive to deliver performance with a purpose and commitment and in the journey of our stand-out performance, we have been lauded and recognized by all the major global and national awards for our stability, fintech innovation and value creation including The Banker awards, IFC award, Asiamoney award, Euromoney award, ICSB National award for corporate governance excellence and Superbrands.

Large global banks such as JP Morgan and Bank of America have chosen EBL as their partner bank in Bangladesh. This is a testimony of the bank’s best practices in corporate governance which won the lender trustworthiness at international mainstream.

Strategic priorities

Meeting clients need has always been our strategic priority. As the leading bank in Bangladesh with strong corporate culture and a global network with a comprehensive product suite, EBL aims to become the first point of contact in all financial matters meeting and providing clients’ need and help them navigate through market uncertainties and their transition to a more sustainable and digitized economy.

COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the requirements of digital products and services and spurred the rapid development of our digital capabilities. Customers are now demanding banking that is simple, functional, reliable, and seamless. We are continuously trying to embrace new initiatives to increase operational efficiency through automation and by introducing new service features in the existing banking service channels and enhancing transaction security to give our customers comfort and reliable banking experience.

A leader in retail banking

With unparalleled customer service, innovative product propositions, and deeper understanding of customer lifestyle needs, EBL has established itself as a leader in retail banking. From 2013 to 2018, for consecutive six years EBL has won coveted The Asian Banker Best Retails Bank in Bangladesh award.  

EBL has country’s largest and most successful co-brand card suite including professional and business bodies, institutions, ministry including Mastercard pre-paid and credit card for BASIS member organizations and their employees, o-brand credit card with Japan-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JBCCI) in association with Visa, co-brand credit card with Dhaka Stock Exchange(DSE) in association with Visa, co-brand Mastercard World and Titanium Credit cards for American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh's (AmCham) member organisations, co-brand Visa cards for Startup Bangladesh Limited, the flagship venture capital fund of ICT Division, co-brand Visa pre-paid card for students, teachers and international youth travel card in collaboration with SSBCL, co-brand card for army, navy and air force personnel, Visa co-brand card agreement with Bangladesh Doctors' Foundation (BDF). EBL card business has won the Mastercard Excellence Award in two categories- Mastercard Prepaid Business and Mastercard Online Acquiring Business in 2022 and in 2021 Mastercard Excellence Award for EBL’s contributions in prepaid card business in Bangladesh.

Priority banking

EBL is the first Bangladeshi bank to introduce exclusive and personalized banking services for high net worth  customers thereby taking service excellence to a new level.  Understanding not only financial but also lifestyle needs of customers approach has enhanced customer-bank relation, helped deepen the relation to emotional level. Through strategically located 18 aesthetically pleasing centers, EBL provide priority bespoke service propositions to deserving customers.

Women banking

EBL believes in women empowerment and investing in building women’s financial and digital capability to spearhead financial inclusion. Building women’s financial capability requires relevant knowledge, skills, mindset and behaviors to make sound financial decisions. Through a host of 360 degree banking, financial and non-financial services, we are relentlessly working to equip women with the required skill set development and help them contribute to the economy.

EBL has launched Joyee, a cobrand Women Entrepreneur Development Program with Prerona Foundation, designed for growth-stage entrepreneurs with a minimum of one year of prior business experience. This program is aimed to building entrepreneurial abilities and improve creditworthiness of women SME entrepreneurs.

A key player in SME sector

EBL understand the role small and medium enterprises play in Bangladesh economy in employment generation and socio-economic development and realizes the difficulties of access to finance for small and medium enterprises. We offer collateral free loans to SME entrepreneurs and 70% of our SME portfolio is collateral free. In the past three years we have financed over taka 400m in SME sector. In 2018 EBL got recognition by Global SME Finance Forum in Madrid.

A partner in agricultural sector growth   

With 11.6% contribution to GDP and absorption of 40.60% of country’s labor force, agriculture sector is at the center of our economy, decreasing poverty and ensuring food security. We provide loans in crops, vegetables, fisheries and animal husbandry. We are consistently not only meeting but exceeding the agricultural sector loan target set by the central bank. We mostly disburse agricultural loans to farmers through our NGO linkages and from 2019-2021 we disbursed taka 487m to the growth of the agricultural sector.  

First to the Market

Innovation is EBL’s forte.  EBL is the first bank in Bangladesh to launch online banking services across all branches in 2003. In 2008, EBL closed a complex multi-dimensional syndication deal of taka650 m for Everest Power Generation Company Ltd. which also comprises Preference Share of BDT 2m, marking it as the first ever preference share launched by a local bank in Bangladesh. EBL introduced Commercial Paper in 2013 for corporate houses; a short-term, unsecured money market instrument issued in the form of promissory note, which initiated a new chapter in the history of the financial market of Bangladesh. As a first local private commercial bank, EBL earned the customer confidence to strike Interest rate SWAP deal for USD 71.25m in 2018 for two concerns of Summit Group: Summit Barisal Power Limited and Summit Narayangonj Power Unit II Limited.

EBL is the first ever bank to introduce biometric payment system in Bangladesh, which added more convenience to the customer’s transaction through EBL’s Sky banking app. EBL is the first lender in Bangladesh to have collaborated with the German trade finance provider Tradewind for export factoring solution in 2020 where Bangladeshi manufacturers and traders are offered secure and innovative trade finance solutions.

EBL is the first local lender to establish EBL Japan Business Desk in 2021 for Japanese investors to help speed up the flow of foreign direct investment from the East Asian nation. The desk is a one-stop service designed for Japanese companies and individual investors.

Creating value through digital transformation

In recent times EBL has taken some major initiatives in digital banking space.

EBL SKYBANKING: 2020 was a game changing year for EBL SKYBANKING. Owing to the pandemic, customers had to adapt to the new normal of digital banking. SKYBANKING played a crucial role in EBL’s digital transformation in 2020 as over 2.5 million of transactions took place, breaking all previous records. In 2020, EBL became the first ever bank in Bangladesh that launched the contactless payment method on SKYBANKING app using the platform of Visa.

EBL SKYPAY: Currently EBL SKYPAY e-commerce transaction gateway enjoys almost 80% of market share. In 2022, through SKYPAY, transaction volume reached BDT 600m mark.

EBL Connect:  EBL has been a pioneer in bringing new ideas and innovative banking solutions in the market. EBL Connect is an online platform, developed by the bank’s IT team, that offers convenience to its customers through electronic fund transfer, payment of various govt. fees, utility bills, VAT & duties, online trade services, viewing and downloading account information and statements, allows companies to disburse employee salary, and so many other banking needs of the customers. In E-Commerce EBL now has 74% market share of country’s online payment gateway providers. As a result, both Visa and MasterCard awarded EBL with the Best E-Commerce Acquiring Bank for 2019-2020 in Bangladesh.

Conclusion

When EBL began its journey in 1992, it was burdened with mounting challenges and a lot to prove to sustain and grow. But within three decades grew into a taka 392bn worth asset size company. With a growth mindset, EBL has not only focused on ensuring profitability, but also demonstrated commitment to sustainable economic development of the country having a disbursement of BDT 35,619m through sustainable and green financing in 2021 which helped the bank secure coveted recognition of a top 10 sustainable bank from the Sustainable Finance Department (SFD) of the central bank. The chemistry behind EBL’s stellar performance is its commitment to corporate governance, its passion for innovation, and its dedication to service excellence.  Considered as a smart and progressive bank in Bangladesh, EBL is now a symbol of stability.

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