‘Reviving’, ‘resuscitating’, ‘transforming’ call it what you will, the need of the hour back in December 2008 was a sound and comprehensive strategy to bring CDB out of an untenable situation, into true sustainability.
The business plan to transform CDB rested on five key strategic imperatives - a fresh rebranding and communication strategy, a shift in market focus, a revised distribution strategy, enterprise governance and a renewed focus on deposit mobilisation and asset creation.
We began working to a plan.
The rebranding and communication strategy was to address and reverse eroding public and customer confidence as well as the direct and indirect negative publicity directed at the Company.
Restricted by the leasing licence we held, which limited access to the market, we adopted a shift in focus by approaching the Central Bank of Sri Lanka for approval to widen our ambit in the financial industry in order to become a total financial solutions provider. This has been accomplished.
Our revised distribution strategy leverages the concept of ‘urban funding - rural lending’. It focuses on attracting deposits from urban areas and lending to the credit needy in rural areas.
We recognised right from the start, that the tone and drive of enterprise governance must begin at the ‘top of the tree’ to be truly effective. The composition of CDB’s Board of Directors changed to reflect this imperative, with a more balanced spread of Executive, Non-Executive and Non-Executive Independent members.
As a consequence of our successful shift in focus from leasing to finance business, the ensuing wider market access has allowed CDB to aggressively promote and mobilise funds through fixed deposits. Satisfactory levels of deposit mobilisation and asset creation accrue.