ComBank places Sri Lanka on global map at UN Climate Change Conference

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently had the distinction of being featured to a global audience as one of 25 banks around the world that are working to promote environment consciousness among their customers.

The occasion was the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) at which Doconomy AB, the Sweden-based impact-tech solutions company which is a partner of Commercial Bank’s Flash Digital Bank Account App, presented a map showing the geographical spread of the 25 banks that are collaborating with the company to help save the environment by using Doconomy’s environmental impact index to calculate the carbon footprint of each transaction performed via their respective apps.

Incidentally, Commercial Bank’s was one of the first five banks worldwide to integrate the Doconomy Åland Index into the Carbon Footprint Calculator feature on the Bank’s Flash Digital Bank Account App.

Doconomy’s CEO Mr Mathias Wikstrom told the COP 27 summit in Egypt that 25 partner banks were helping educate customers around the world about the importance of tracking the carbon footprint of their transactions, thereby driving climate action globally. Commercial Bank’s partnership with Doconomy resulted in Sri Lanka’s presence on the map of countries engaged in this initiative.

Commercial Bank said it plans to further improve the Flash Digital Bank Account App’s ‘Save the Environment’ feature with the support of Doconomy in the near future. Both parties are also working closely to create awareness about sustainable finance, sustainable businesses and environment conservation.

In 2020, Commercial Bank enhanced its Flash Digital Bank Account App with a revolutionary feature that enabled users to compute the environmental impact of their spending through this ‘Save the Environment’ feature, which was already a first in the Sri Lankan market. This was designed to create awareness about the social carbon footprint of consumption by assessing each transaction a user of the Flash Digital Bank Account App carries out via the app. By partnering with Doconomy a year later, the Bank gained access to the upgraded API of the Åland Index, the world’s first e-Environmental Impact Report, and subsequently updated the Flash Digital Bank Account App and expanded its scope to not just capture the carbon footprint of immediate service providers, but also of the entire value chain of the goods or services purchased by users.

Founded in Sweden in 2018, Doconomy is a world-leading provider of applied impact solutions. Doconomy seeks to future-proof life on planet earth by empowering individuals and corporations to take responsibility for their environmental footprint. Firmly believing that the climate crisis can only be solved as a collective, Doconomy is also a partner of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mastercard, S&P Trucost, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Parley for the Oceans.

Sri Lanka’s first 100% carbon neutral bank, the first Sri Lankan bank to be listed among the Top 1000 Banks of the World and the only Sri Lankan bank to be so listed for 12 years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 269 branches and 943 automated machines in Sri Lanka. Commercial Bank is the largest lender to Sri Lanka’s SME sector and is a leader in digital innovation in the country’s Banking sector. The Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; and the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake.