2025 was a year of delivery. Not of promises, not of sentiment, but of outcomes. For the third consecutive year, DFCC Bank recorded its strongest financial performance to date. This consistency is not cyclical. It is cultural.

Almost every branch across the network generated profit. Growth was not concentrated; it was collective. It was also qualitative. We have been deliberate in our ambition: to be the best at what we do, not necessarily the biggest. That distinction matters. It defines how we assess risk, how we serve customers, and how we build for the long term.

Trust earned over seventy years

When Standard Chartered Bank selected DFCC Bank to acquire its retail and wealth business in Sri Lanka, the decision reflected more than financial evaluation. It reflected confidence in who we are.

In a competitive process, what differentiated DFCC Bank was trust: trust in our governance, trust in our technical capability to execute a complex transition seamlessly, and trust in a reputation built over seventy years for doing the right thing. Integrity and competence are inseparable. One without the other is fragile.

The colleagues and customers joining DFCC Bank through this transition represent relationships and expectations that we take seriously. Our commitment is continuity from day one, stability through transition, and value creation over time.

This transaction accelerates a strategic evolution already underway. DFCC Bank has deep development banking roots. Today, we are firmly positioned as a stronger retail and commercial franchise, with enhanced wealth, SME and consumer capabilities. The acquisition strengthens our presence in key remittance corridors, particularly in the Middle East, where diaspora trust and brand familiarity are critical.

Performance with discipline

For three consecutive years, DFCC Bank has delivered record results. That performance reflects disciplined balance sheet management, careful capital planning under ICAAP frameworks, and an improving risk profile across our portfolios.

Cyclone Ditwah tested the system. The human cost was severe, and we responded with relief measures, restructuring options, emergency credit and tailored support. While the anticipated macroeconomic disruption is yet to be fully understood, the episode reinforced the importance of preparedness, prudence and empathy in equal measure.

Growth without discipline is fragile. Discipline without growth is stagnation. We pursue both.

Reimagining banking – from a white canvas

Alongside financial performance, 2025 marked a visible shift in mindset. Our ambition is clear: to become the most customer-centric bank in the sector and the easiest bank to work with.

This is not incremental improvement. We are reimagining banking from a white canvas. We are asking fundamental questions:

If banking were designed today, how would we structure processes?

What would customers expect as standard?

Which legacy steps can be simplified, automated, or eliminated?

Our approach is straightforward. If something is not against regulations, not illegal nor unethical, it can be changed.

This thinking translated into tangible outcomes during the year. We introduced Sri Lanka’s fastest guaranteed 10-day home loan, providing certainty and speed in a segment traditionally characterised by delay. We also pioneered a 20-year fixed-rate housing loan, giving families long-term repayment stability in an environment where interest rate volatility has shaped financial planning for many.

These are not marketing statements. They are structural decisions about how a Bank should evolve to meet changing customer expectations.

We are redesigning customer journeys, shortening approval cycles, simplifying processes and strengthening transparency. Fine print is no longer a shield; clarity is.

Digital transformation supports this ambition. Platforms such as DFCC ONE and iConnect 2.0 are not technology projects; they are transformation projects. We are investing in data, automation and AI where they meaningfully improve service, reduce turnaround times and empower frontline teams.

Remittances are another example. By strengthening cross-border partnerships and enhancing digital processing, DFCC Bank is positioning itself as a trusted conduit for Sri Lankans working abroad to support families at home. These flows are not transactions alone; they are lifelines. Ease, speed and reliability are therefore non-negotiable.

Culture as competitive advantage

Sustained performance over three years is not a coincidence. It is the outcome of deliberate cultural investment.

Over the past several years, we have invested significantly in training, capability building and leadership development. Countless hours have gone into equipping teams with the skills to compete, serve and decide confidently. The Universal Banker model, structured credit training, ESG literacy, digital fluency and values-driven leadership programmes have strengthened execution at every level.

In 2025, DFCC Bank was recognised among Sri Lanka’s Great Places to Work®. This recognition is important not as an accolade, but as independent validation that our culture is grounded in trust, fairness and shared purpose. High-performing institutions are built on engaged people. When colleagues feel heard, respected and empowered, customer experience strengthens and risk discipline improves. Culture, therefore, is not peripheral to strategy; it is central to it.

Hunger to grow is now visible across the network. Ideas are surfacing from branches. Accountability is strengthening. Silos are weakening. The ethos of customer centricity is gradually embedding itself into our daily operating rhythm.

Change is not disruptive when it is purposeful. It becomes energising.

Sustainable finance – measured by action

DFCC Bank’s sustainability agenda is grounded in execution. Our Green Bond programme, international listings, and the issuance of Sri Lanka’s first Blue Bond demonstrate that thematic finance can be credible, transparent and disciplined.

We evaluate a substantial proportion of our lending through environmental and social criteria before approval. ESG is not an overlay; it is integrated into credit processes, governance structures and Board oversight.

Our partnership with institutions such as Symbiotics and our engagement with global frameworks enhance both credibility and access to capital. International partners increasingly look for institutions that combine governance strength with sustainability capability. DFCC Bank is earning that position.

In 2025, we also expanded inclusion through DFCC-Al-Wafa Islamic Banking, offering Shariah-compliant solutions grounded in fairness, transparency and risk-sharing. Inclusion is not rhetoric; it is structural.

With those who build and those who dream

Through DFCC Aloka, we now serve over 100,000 women, connecting entrepreneurs not only to finance, but to knowledge, networks and opportunity. In the startup ecosystem, we continue to support founders with structured evaluation frameworks and conviction in emerging business models.

Enterprise matters. MSMEs matter. Innovation matters.

Purpose beyond balance sheets

Our responsibility extends beyond financial intermediation.

In 2025, DFCC Bank strengthened two defining community platforms.

The “Ride for Life” initiative, now emerging as a unifying Bank-wide movement, places suicide prevention and mental health awareness at the centre of our social commitment. This is not a symbolic event. It is a sustained commitment to affirm that life matters, that conversation matters, and that institutions must stand with communities on difficult issues.

Our long-standing commitment to biodiversity conservation, including the Safeguarding the Sri Lankan Leopard campaign, reflects a deliberate strategic choice. The Sri Lankan Leopard is not merely an iconic species; it is the island’s apex predator and an umbrella species whose survival safeguards entire ecosystems. By regulating prey populations and maintaining ecological balance, it protects forest integrity, biodiversity corridors, water systems and agricultural stability. When the leopard thrives, the ecosystem beneath it remains intact.

For Sri Lanka, this is not abstract conservation. Biodiversity underpins tourism, rural livelihoods, watershed protection and climate resilience. The economic consequences of ecological decline are real and long term. By championing leopard conservation through education, awareness and habitat advocacy, DFCC Bank signals that responsible banking must extend beyond financial capital to the protection of natural capital upon which national prosperity depends. Protecting ecosystems is not peripheral to development; it sustains it.

Balance matters. Community matters. Life matters.

Moving forward

As we look ahead, our priorities remain clear: deepen customer centricity, strengthen digital capability, expand sustainable finance, reinforce capital discipline, and continue embedding a culture that rewards integrity, competence and initiative.

We are not driven by scale alone. We are driven by standards.

To our colleagues across DFCC Bank, thank you for your commitment and courage in driving change. To our Chairman and Board of Directors, thank you for your guidance that is principled and decisive. To regulators, partners and shareholders, thank you for your continued confidence. And above all, to our customers, thank you for your trust.

The journey ahead will demand the same discipline and clarity that brought us here. We move forward not with complacency, but with confidence grounded in capability.

Thimal Perera
Chief Executive Officer

24 February 2026