Russell de Mel | National Development Bank | Video

Transcript

NDB Bank has been one of the largest sources of medium and long-term project finance in Sri Lanka since 1979. In 2001, NDB entered commercial banking by acquiring ABN Amro Bank’s SL operations. Discussing the development of NDB Group is Russell de Mel, CEO of NDB Bank.

World Finance: So introduce us to NDB and describe the evolution of the company.

Russell de Mel: When we initially got into banking, we felt that being a late entrant into this sector, which is highly competitive, we would someday have to operate to a differential business model, and that there ought to be some functions that need to supplement banking. And it was capital markets that we opted for, and also supported by insurance.

So over the years, the banking segment has expanded to take on commercial banking and retail banking, from the project finance banking and SME banking that we had initially. On the capital markets side, we’ve expanded into investment banking, stockbroking and wealth management. We had an investment in insurance which we divested recently, but we still have a product offering on bancassurance.

And now we are positioned to what we always wanted to be: a one stop shop for all business and financial needs of the country, and we’ve very successfully accomplished this. And I think the times are very opportune for us to really leverage ourselves and forge ahead.

“We are unique in terms of a human resource and we position ourselves in fact as a knowledge hub”

World Finance: So amid this expansion, how have you differentiated yourselves from your competitors?

Russell de Mel: Well, we have a unique group structure as I just mentioned. The combination of banking with capital markets, and that’s supplemented and supported, ably supported, by a very unique human capital base.

On the one end we have the professional bankers, at the other end we have the high end CFAs, and in between we have lawyers, accountants, engineers, stockbrokers, wealth planners. So we feel that we are unique in terms of a human resource and we position ourselves in fact as a knowledge hub. There is quite a distinct advantage when you focus on advisory, because we feel that transaction will always follow.

Sri Lanka is emerging, and investment is very vital to promote growth, and we can play a vital role in directing the right investment into the right sectors, and providing the right advice. So we look forward to very interesting times. You know the one stop shop concept, coupled with the knowledge hub, we lead a great advantage vis-a-vis RPS.

World Finance: Against the emerging growth of Sri Lanka’s economy then, where do you place NDB, and what’s the growth story there?

Russell de Mel: All banks have a moral obligation to be an integral part of this growth phase, but the NDB Group has a bigger responsibility given our strength and core competencies.

Today Sri Lanka is planning to achieve rapid economic growth, and as I said, growth is spurred by investments: both locally and taken with a local entrepreneurs, as well as bringing the foreign investments to the country, which is much desired.

We have an investment bank in Bangladesh, we have an MOU with DBS Singapore, we have a leasing company in the Maldives. What foreign investors are looking for today is a trusted portal. Once you have an idea to start an investment or a project, the series of activities that go along with it from the conceptualisation stage to preparation of the feasibility, identifying investors, raising the finances and if anyone wants to exit to the stock market, or “play the stock market” and exit, no other entity of within our peers can offer this range of activities. And we feel that this is the cutting edge, and we are very well placed to capitalise on the emerging situations, emerging activities, and forge forward.

“All banks have a moral obligation to be an integral part of this growth phase”

World Finance: You talked earlier about developing your business lines, how important is it to merge both wealth management and capital markets with core banking?

Russell de Mel: Through our wealth management entity, we are offering the investors a range of products, because today investors are very intelligent. They know what their risk appetite is, so what we have done is coupled risk appetite with the commensurate returns, so the investor would know this is my risk appetite, with this kind of risk appetite, this is the kind of return I can expect. And then maybe if I invest on this product, and some of these products are driven online so he or she can monitor the progress the investments over a period of time.

We manage large funds, and wealth management is imaginably one of the best corporates within the NDB Group, so as I said earlier, capital markets with wealth management and insurance, insurance also has different products, we are in a position to really position NDB Group way above our peers.

“We spend a lot of time training our people and guiding them towards a group we share”

World Finance: Finally, what’s the strategic vision for NDB over the next few years?

Russell de Mel: Well, we’ve been growing ever since we were formed in 1979, in fact I’ve been very much involved in this change process, and one thing that I need to respect within the group is that when a change takes place, it’s not when the balance sheet records your investment but it’s when the people and the people believes in the change that the real change takes place.

So we spend a lot of time training our people and guiding them towards a group we share, and that we’ve accomplished now. When a client walks in, our vision is to help them sign one mandate which is shared right across the group, across all the products, and at the end of the month, he or she will receive one statement giving the transactions on the assets and the liabilities. This is not a far fetched dream, we started on it many years ago, we are finding the IT platform because it has to be driven by information technology, and we are heavily leveraging on IT, so that is my dream and I am sure that the NDB Group will be achieving this dream very soon.

World Finance: Russell, thank you.

Russell de Mel: Thank you so much Nick.